UK agriculture data

British breeds and fields, in numbers

British farm animal breeds — sheep, cattle, pigs, horses, poultry and goats — and a century of crop areas in England, from the Defra June Survey.

The register

Breeds by species

Defra June Survey

Hectares under the main crops every ten years. The grass and grazing rows show how much of the farmed area was never ploughed.

Crop	1900	1950	1980	2000	2021
Wheat	706,012	950,705	1,405,723	1,956,759	1,654,867
Barley	665,731	643,839	1,770,289	752,168	816,149
Oats	752,939	637,553	98,434	80,047	158,983
Oilseed rape	—	30,312	91,594	294,102	268,410
Potatoes	160,638	329,540	148,151	126,755	102,723
Sugar beet	—	168,444	211,603	172,809	95,249
Field beans	100,699	43,100	47,941	122,079	184,810
Orchards	—	108,558	42,574	25,810	20,959
Permanent grass (over 5 years old)	5,419,618	3,647,762	3,154,927	2,876,619	3,119,055