The Datum Report

Occupation 5111 · Skilled trades occupations

Farmers

Half of full-time farmers in the UK earn more than £35,295 a year, and half earn less.

Farmers and related occupations cultivate arable crops, fruits and trees, and raise cattle, sheep, pigs, poultry and other livestock for consumption.

How people enter it

No formal academic qualifications are required, but prior practical farming experience is normally needed. Training is typically received on-the-job and via a variety of vocational qualifications in agriculture, including NVQs/SVQs at levels 1 to 4. Apprenticeships are also available in some areas.

What the work involves

• feeds and waters animals, takes responsibility for livestock health and welfare, treats minor ailments and calls vet if necessary
• plants, propagates, sprays, fertilises and harvests field crops
• undertakes farm maintenance tasks such as fencing, hedging, cleaning and building maintenance
• operates and maintains farm machinery such as combine harvesters, straw balers, milking machines and tractors
• arranges for the sale of crops, livestock and other farm produce
• maintains records of production, finance and breeding
• ensures good environmental practice is observed in all tasks

Also called

Agricultural contractor · Agricultural technician (farming) · Crofter (farming) · Farmer · Herd manager

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for farmers, 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. 3 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

Agricultural and fishing trades n.e.c. · Gardeners and landscape gardeners · Groundsmen and greenkeepers · Horticultural trades