The results of the December Agricultural Survey released by Scotland’s Chief Statistician on Wednesday show a return to a more normal winter cropping pattern, but a worrying and continuing decline in livestock numbers.
Across the eight categories of livestock all but one show a drop in numbers since the last December survey. The sole exception is dairy cows, with a 2.9% increase pushing the national herd up to 167,400 including young stock.
The beef herd, which has been the focus of most concern during CAP negotiations, is down but only by 0.7%, with 428,500 suckler cows on the ground.
Cattle numbers as a whole have dropped by a greater degree, with a 1.8% reduction to 1.72 million. If it is any comfort, the rate of decline has slowed since the June survey.
Sheep trends are if anything more worrying, with total numbers down by 2.9% to 4.76 million over the year.
Looking further into the statistics the breeding ewe flock has dropped 150,000 or 2.9% to 2.8 million head.
Lamb numbers, perhaps reflecting difficult conditions last spring, are down by 5.5% with 1.72 million on farms at the survey date.
Pig numbers have taken the biggest knock with the herd down by 9.4%, with 293,500 of all ages on farms.
Poultry numbers have reduced by 5.8%, with 14.2 million on farms including broilers and layers in early December.
The area of autumn-sown crops in December last year was up 12% on the previous December.
This reflects a far better season for crop establishment.
This has translated into 21,600 hectares more wheat (up 24%), 1,200ha more oilseed rape (up 3.4%) and 1,300ha more oats (up 19%).
The area of winter barley remained fairly similar to 2012 at 56,400 acres.
These increases bring the total winter crop area back to levels last seen in 2010, with 203,600 hectares in the ground.
The results also show that the amount of hay, grass silage and arable silage all saw increases last year.
Thanks to the vastly better summer weather in 2013, hay saw the biggest increase going up by a massive 61%, with 311.000 tonnes safely secured.
Silage saw a marginal increase of 0.6% with 6.86m tonnes clamped or baled. Arable silage is obviously increasing in popularity, with a 15% increase pushing the tonnage up to an estimated 346,600 tonnes
There was also a fall in the number of tractors and various other categories of machinery.
This may reflect the increased use of contract working.
There are 40,000 tractors in the national fleet, which is down 1.7% or 600 machines over the year.
As usual more detailed figures follow a trend, with fewer low-horsepower tractors and an increase in the higher-horsepower models.