Longford bucked all the trends of 2021 with a big jump in land for sale but a drop in prices. Thirty farms came on the market, well up from the 14 of the previous year. The total area involved was 1,427ac, more than double the 581ac offered in 2020.

The supply trend was noticeable from early in the year. It was also noticeable that average farm size was quite high. The average size was 48ac and that meant there were a good number in the 50ac to 70ac range.

This may have been one factor in the modest drop in average price. There are not as many customers for a farm of 70ac as there are for a holding of 25ac. The payout is a lot bigger.

Thirteen of the 30 farms put on the market were offered by auction.

Average sale price turned out to be €8,544/ac, down by €715/ac on the previous year. Two farms made over €17,000/ac. One was the 81ac cattle farm at Robinstown, Granard, which was sold at auction by JJ Flood Auctioneers for €1.38m or €17,037/ac.

The farm had a nice farmhouse and good sheds. The other top seller was a 12ac holding sold by Murtagh Bros.

Murtagh Bros also got a good price for a 70ac farm at Granardkill which had a modern four-bay slatted shed. It sold at auction for €1,055,000 or just over €15,000/ac.

In recent years drystock farmers tended to be the most active buyers of farmland in Longford.

However, off-farm money had more power in 2021 with the business category emerging as dominant buyers, taking 41% of the holdings sold.

This left drystock farmers buying 30% of the farms that sold, with dairy and mixed enterprise farmers sharing the rest.