Large tillage farms with over 100ha have experienced the highest percentage increase in tillage farm income between 2020 and 2025, rising by 67%, compared to an average of 51% across all tillage farms, according to Trevor Donnellan of Teagasc. Tillage farms under 20ha in size saw the lowest increase, at 20%.

Speaking at the Teagasc Crops Forum, Donnellan explained that these increases in the National Farm Survey figures are modest, but may seem larger than they are because of low tillage farm incomes in 2020 and the inflation that has occurred in the last few years. Costs have also increased massively since 2020. Donnellan said that while beef, sheep and milk prices have generally risen to help farmers cope with these increased costs, cereal prices remain subdued due to successive large global harvests.

Land rental

Large tillage farms tend to have lower overhead costs on a per hectare basis too, as they can spread these costs, such as maintenance, depreciation and interest, over a larger area of land.

This is somewhat offset by a larger spend on land rental. These large farms over 100ha in size spend around €250/ha on land rental when this rent cost is averaged over all of the land on the farm. This compares to all other tillage farms spending €50/ha or less, when averaged out across rented and non-rented land.

“Larger farms have the largest proportion of the farm in rented land, meaning there is a significant cost being carried by these farms,” Donnellan said.

Despite this, larger tillage farms still retained the highest margins per hectare. However, they are generally in receipt of smaller support payments.

“Larger tillage farms tend to have higher margins, but this is offset by the fact that smaller farms tend to have higher levels of support payments,” Donnellan added, leaving the average tillage farm income per hectare quite similar across the board.