Understanding the Bigger Picture: Join the Scottish Farm Business Survey
As farmers we are facing a once in a generation period of adjustment. The most recent set of results from the Scottish Farm Business Survey (SFBS) show that average Farm Business Income (FBI), or net profit, for the sample of 400 commercial farming businesses in Scotland fell by more than 50 per cent in the last set of published figures, compared to the previous year’s ten year high.
That headline figure at the time (March 2025) caused concern, particularly at a time when many producers are experiencing strong livestock prices. However, these results reflect the crop year to May 2024 and therefore lag behind more recent market improvements. Even so, they underline a fundamental truth about running a farming business: volatility is now a defining feature of farm business management and performance.
And so with that context, there is real value in stepping back from the day to day to examine the bigger financial picture for your business. It can be hard to step away from daily routines and duties, book time in the office or at the kitchen table, dig out the accounts, run some reports from the bookkeeping, and prioritise some strategic financial planning. However, it is important to take time to evaluate your businesses performance.
Yet understanding how to look at the trends in your business over several years – rather than relying solely on annual tax accounts – can help you be better informed to make strategic decisions. Looking at multi-year trends in your costs, your overall farm output and your profit, can give you the real evidence of how your business is performing and where corrective action may be required. It can also help with demonstrating the creeping rises in input costs which erode margins over time in a stealthier manner.
Participation in the SFBS can help to support this understanding for your business. By joining the “Survey” and sharing your farm accounts data with the team at SAC Consulting, you will receive detailed management account type reports that allow you to compare your year on year financial performance. You will also receive a benchmarking report against businesses similar in size and type to your own. The service is free, requires about 2 hours of your time, with a little more in your first year. Your data will be anonymised prior to being sent to Scottish Government, and that data will be utilised for statistical purposes only.
The external reference point of independently verified financial reporting can be reassuring for your business, or it can act as a discussion point for change in your business. Solid financial evidence can also help to ground occasionally challenging family or partnership conversations, rather than individuals' perceptions based on current market prices or the last trip to market.
The survey data is equally important beyond your farm gate. SFBS results and data are used extensively by Scottish Government and research institutions to model the economic impact and viability of policy change, and potential scheme design.
At a time of ongoing uncertainty around future support payments, climate and conditionality requirements, and recent changes to inheritance tax reliefs, this independently gathered evidence matters for farm businesses. The dataset helps to shape how policy is designed, and this in turn shapes the impact of policy change on individual businesses.
We ask you for a digital record of your receipts and invoices from your farm accounts, and about two hours of your time to answer questions. You are allocated to one of the members in the SAC Consulting team, and they take your anonymity seriously.
Its free to join, and you get back in return:
- The farm business report: includes a net worth assessment of the assets in your farm business completed at yourfinancial year end. You can use this to help guide any succession planning discussions you are having with your accountant. You also get a set of detailed management accounts that allows you to compare your costs and productivity year on year for up to three years.
- 2.The Individual performance benchmark report:this comes out at the end of March sometime after your accounting year end. However, it gives you the opportunity to compare your farm’s figures to other businesses like yours, so you have an external comparison. This can reassure you that you are on the right track or give you something to aim for in any changes that you need to make to your system.
You can find out more about the Scottish Farm Business Survey from one of our participants here.
Sascha Grierson, Principal Consultant, Sascha.Grierson@sac.co.uk
Posted by SAC Consulting on 16/01/2026
