The average family farm had an income of €26,526, the survey found.

“Despite the considerable fall in milk price, increased milk production, combined with higher cattle prices, good weather conditions, reduced input expenditure due to lower fuel and animal feed prices, resulted in a 6% increase in average farm income in 2015,” said Teagasc economist Thia Hennessy at the presentation of the National Farm Survey this Tuesday.

The main boost came from increased margin on suckler and beef farms, thanks to an increase of between 6% and 16% in cattle prices depending on the time of animal, combined with cheaper inputs thanks to low grain prices.

Although suckler and beef farms still returned a low income at an average of €12,904 and relied significantly on direct payments, Teagasc’s Brian Moran noted that “2015 represents the first year in recent times where cattle farms generated a profit from production before they received these payments”.

Brian Moran of the farm survey said projections for 2016 show costs are expected to increase.

“We expect costs to be slightly up because farmers have been slow to turn out cattle. We had a late spring meaning farmers and this has meant farmers have had to feed probably more this year than they had last year. We think that’s going to affect overall costs even though it looks like fertiliser prices will be down.”

Listen to an interview with Brian Moran in our podcast below:

Increased milk supply compensating falling prices

According to Teagasc, milk price was down by almost 20% in 2015, but income on dairy farms fell by just 4% to an average of €63,020. Many dairy farmers compensated the fall in prices with increased production, Teagasc found, with almost one in three increasing supply by 20% or more.

Lamb price increases of 2% last year, combined with cheaper inputs, led to an average 8% increase in income for sheep farms, to an average of €15,791.

The survey indicates that tillage farm income grew by 16% in 2015 to an average of €33,731.

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