The Datum Report

Occupation 1211 · Managers, directors and senior officials

Managers and proprietors in agriculture and horticulture

Half of full-time managers and proprietors in agriculture and horticulture in the UK earn more than £38,182 a year, and half earn less.

Managers and proprietors in this unit group plan, organise and co-ordinate the activities and resources of farming and mixed farming establishments cultivating arable crops, fruits, trees and shrubs, and/or raising cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry. Managers and proprietors in horticulture oversee the production of plants for wholesale and/or retail.

How people enter it

Whilst no formal academic qualifications are required by proprietors in this area, most farm and horticultural managers have a vocational agricultural qualification (such as a BTEC/SQA award) and prior practical farming experience. Many farm and horticultural management jobs require a degree or equivalent qualification in a relevant subject. A small number of large farm and farm consultancy companies run graduate management training schemes. Apprenticeships are also available, as well as NVQs/SVQs in Agriculture at level 4.

What the work involves

• determines financial, staffing and other short and long-term needs
• produces and maintains records of production, finance and breeding
• decides or advises on the types of crops and/or produce to be grown or livestock raised
• plans intensity and sequence of farm or horticultural operations and orders seed, fertiliser, equipment and other supplies
• markets and arranges for the sale of crops, livestock and other farm or horticultural produce

Also called

Farm manager · Farm owner · Nursery manager (horticulture) · Stock manager (farming)

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for managers and proprietors in agriculture and horticulture, full-time employees, 2023 to 2025. Each point is that year's ASHE April snapshot as published — revisions are not backfilled into earlier years, and a year ONS withheld is a gap rather than a joined line.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Year-on-year change

The change from each year to the next, in per cent, computed from the figures in the chart above — so the two cannot disagree.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Pay by region

Median gross annual pay for full-time employees, ranked, against the UK figure. 2 of 11 regions are published: ONS withholds a cell where the survey sample cannot support it, and those are shown as gaps rather than dropped — an absent region is not a region without the work in it.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Period 2025. Table

Every regional figure

ONS does not publish occupational pay below region. Cells the survey could not support are shown as withheld, with its reason — adding a region split to a specific occupation leaves roughly a tenth of cells publishable.

Common questions

Classified alongside this

Managers and proprietors in forestry, fishing and related services