There is no doubt that 2025 was an exceptional year for dairy, beef and egg producers in NI and that is reflected in the provisional farm income figures published by DAERA last Thursday. See page 12.
As well as high prices for livestock commodities, feed prices edged back, leaving farmers able to make sustainable returns. Unfortunately, markets have turned downward since then, which has significantly impacted the likes of beef finishers and dairy farmers.
With a lot of dairy businesses now autumn calving, cash is particularly tight on these farms at this time of year, with low milk sales and contractor bills to pay. However, direct payments are due to issue to NI farmers in early September and that will provide a welcome boost to cashflow on many of these farms.
Paid out
Across the various schemes there is still around £300m paid out to local farmers each year.
As recently as 2016, those payments matched the total income from farming and in the four years from 2020 to 2023, that farm support accounted for an average of over 60% of farmer income.
So just because farming had a good year in 2024 and an even better one in 2025, does not mean this money should be easily dismissed.
It is also worth acknowledging that DAERA has not followed the lead from England, but instead continues to pay most of the money as an area payment, rather than linking it to an environmental scheme where farmers have to undertake various actions to avail of support.
Given the dire situation many English farmers are now in after two months of drought, the lack of a safety net which comes from area-based farm payments will hit doubly hard.
In fact, you have to seriously question the long-term future for farming in that part of the world unless there is a dramatic change in the UK government’s approach.
SHARING OPTIONS