The average income for Irish dairy farmers stood at just under €49,500 in 2023, a fall of 69% or €108,000 when compared with the previous year, according to a new report.
The Teagasc National Farm Survey 2023, which has been published today (Tuesday, July 23), shows that all farm systems recorded their lowest average incomes in several years in 2023.
The report, which is representative of almost 85,000 farms in Ireland, shows that the average family farm income in Ireland dropped by 57% in 2023 to €19,925.
Teagasc said that the decrease is strongly associated with the sharp decline in dairy and tillage farm incomes in 2023 driven by falls in milk and cereal prices, lower production volumes and high input costs.
Collectively, these two sectors accounted for 53% of farm income in Ireland in 2023.
It follows a year of record incomes for dairy and tillage in 2022, which Teagasc said illustrates “the highly volatile nature of farm income in both of these farm systems in Ireland”.
The annual report also shows that drystock farms experienced a notable decline in income in 2023.
Cattle and sheep farms saw the value of output decrease, and with production costs remaining high, incomes on drystock farms in 2023 were notably lower than in 2022.
According to the National Farm Survey, milk prices were down 28% in 2023 compared to 2022, while cereal prices decreased by 30% to 35%.
Finished cattle prices increased by 4% in 2023, by 7% for weanlings and 5% for store cattle. By contrast, lamb prices decreased by about 3% in 2023.
Income
The data states that dairy system production costs, which rose by over 30% to their highest level in 2022, remained at that record level in 2023.
Although the dairy cow population continued to increase in 2023, milk output volume fell by 4% in the face of low profitability and challenging production conditions at the back end of last year.
This all resulted in an average dairy farm income of €49,432 in 2023, down from €157,591 in the previous year.
The average tillage farm income was down 71% in 2023 relative to 2022, taking the average income down to just €21,400, a decrease of over €52,000.
Cereal yields were down significantly for many crops in 2023 compared to 2022 due to impact of weather during the growing season and at harvest.
Irish cereal harvest prices were also down by up to 35% in 2023 compared to the previous year, due to increased grain availability internationally.
A fall in fertiliser price in 2023 was too late in the growing season to result in any significant cost savings for tillage farmers.
The report states that production costs on a whole farm basis on tillage farms increased in 2023 by 8%.
However, Teagasc noted that some of this increase is because of the enlargement of the tillage sample in the survey.
In the cattle rearing system, which comprises of farms that are mainly specialised in suckler beef production, the value of output increased by 6% in 2023, mainly due to higher cattle prices.
Teagasc said that production costs on these farms increased by 11% on average in 2023, which was influenced by the difficult weather conditions in the second half of the year and consequent rise in feed costs.
The average value of support payments for cattle rearing farms was up 10% on the 2022 level.
Despite this, the average cattle rearing income was €7,425 in 2023, down 15%, or close to €1,350, compared with the 2022 level (€8,767).
The ‘cattle other’ system, which is mainly beef finishing farms, but also includes farms selling store cattle saw the average value of farm output decrease by 5% in 2023.
This was mostly due to a reduction in volume, including a decline in the weights of finished cattle.
Finished prices declined during the summer and autumn of 2023, which impacted negatively on many farms in this system, the report stated.
Support payments and production costs on these farms were relatively unchanged on average during 2023.
Teagasc said that the average income for ‘cattle other’ systems stood at €14,735 in 2023, down almost €3,400 or 19% compared with the 2022 level (€18,097).
When the data for the two cattle systems is combined, the average income for cattle farms in 2023 was just under €12,600, a decline of 14% on the 2022 level.
Report
The National Farm Survey shows the average sheep farm income was down 22%, at €12,625 in 2023 a decrease of almost €3,500 relative to the 2022 level (€16,086).
Teagasc said that this was due to a decrease in the value and volume of farm output and lower lamb prices.
Production costs on the average sheep farm in 2023 remained relatively unchanged, with higher feed expenditure offset by a slight decline in overhead costs. On average, the level of direct payments for sheep farms was up 10%.
Teagasc noted that the high rate of general inflation of recent years needs to be taken into consideration which reduces the real value of those average farm incomes.
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