The Teagasc National Farm Survey for 2022 highlights something that most dairy farmers already know – that 2022 was a great year to produce milk in Ireland.

The headline figure of €151,000 of an average family farm income on dairy farms for 2022 surpasses all other sectors by a distance. It represents a 53% increase compared to 2021 and the fact that it is set to decline by 50% in 2023 (see page 7)hammers home the point that last year was a real outlier in terms of profit.

Dairy is different, not only in terms of profit, but also in structure. There are 1.45 units of unpaid labour on dairy farms, whereas the average across all other farms is 0.96 unpaid labour units per farm.

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Ninety per cent of dairy farmers are full-time, whereas it’s 66% full-time across all other livestock farms. Dairy farms are 1.75 times larger than other livestock farms and debt levels are almost 3.5 times higher on dairy farms.

The data shows that dairy farms that lease land are paying more for land than they did in 2021, with the average lease payment on dairy farms up to €194/ac in 2022. Tillage farms have surpassed dairy farms in terms of the price being paid per acre, with tillage farmers paying an average of €207/ac in 2022. Teagasc predicts that average family farm income on dairy farms will be €70,000 to €75,000 in 2023.