Land tied up in long-term leases across the country and pressure from solar and house building close to Dublin is seeing farmers opt to migrate west in search of land for leasing, according to Dillon Murtagh of Murtagh Bros Auctioneers.

“There’s a lot of demand for tillage ground, but there’s none out there,” he said.

“A lot of farmers are looking for it, but supply is very limited. I’m wondering if they’re being squeezed out and moving west, as an awful lot of land is being taken out for solar and town expansion in the likes of Kildare, Louth and Meath.

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“It’s putting pressure in those areas and they’re moving west.”

The auctioneer, with offices in Mullingar and Enfield, added: “Scarcity is the big factor. It’s causing an issue as it’s awkward for young farmers. They’re finding it difficult to get naked land to build up entitlements on.”

Meanwhile, auctioneers dealing with commonage have reported that demand has reduced with much of this down to increased monitoring of farming activity on them by the Department of Agriculture.

The extra monitoring is being driven by an increased spotlight from Europe on so-called circumvention, or the artificial creation of holdings to increase payments.

“It’s generally leasing for between €80/ac and €90/ac, but the Department is clamping down massively on commonage,” said Oughterard-based Luke Spencer. “They want to see animals on the land and it being actively farmed. I’ve leased a 57ac one this year for €5,000.

“For shares of commonage under 110ac, demand is still strong but when you go bigger than that it’s harder to find customers. I have a 430ac block of farmland at Recess coming up shortly and there is also a one-17th share of 3,015ac (177ac) at Derryrush. We’re looking at €15,000 for that annually.”

Adrian Burke from Ballinrobe, Co Mayo reported a similar story on commonages.

“They’re trying to close the door on people renting them, drawing down the payments, but not doing much farming on it. They want to be shown that farming is taking place.”

Just like the Leinster tillage farmer pushing west, Burke said commonages are an area that has seen more interest from young farmers as other options are limited.

“It could make from €90/ac to €100/ac. A young farmer can apply to the national reserve for entitlements and benefit from the young farmer top-ups and this is one route that they can do it.”

He also reported that long-term leases mean it’s getting very hard to get rental ground in south Mayo.

“A good tenant at reasonable money is better than a bad one at good money and people are more conscious of that now.

“Good grazing ground where you can get a few cuts of silage is making up to €300/ac and you’re looking at €200/ac to €250/ac for grazing land. Rougher land can make around €150/ac to €200/ac.”