Farm profits dropped sharply during 2013. With no immediate recovery in sight, focusing on the resulting issues and challenges is vitalProfit before rent and finance fell 14% in the 2013 harvest year, or ￡60/ ha on average, compared with 2012, according to data from 22,000ha managed by Sentry.Most of the reduction came from a ￡58/ha drop in total income; costs rose ￡2/ha. As a result the average farm made a ￡373/ha profit. However, deducting the single farm payment saw that fall to just ￡159/ha. Issue: Managing a business with rising output prices allows most decision-making to look good at some point. But managing rising costs and falling output prices is much more challenging. The top 25% of farms (see table) are better placed to meet that challenge, but even this group cannot afford to sit back.
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