Letting prices of between €480/ac and €540/ac were paid at auction last week for three blocks of land in Kilkenny and Laois.

The top price of €540/ac was paid for 45ac at Danesfort, Co Kilkenny. The rental price equates to €24,300 per year. The lease is for a seven-year term.

The property is in two fields and was sown to maize last year. It was described as excellent ground by local auctioneer Joe Coogan.

ADVERTISEMENT

The property, which is around five miles outside Kilkenny, was let by public auction last Friday (February 6), with Coogan having several interested parties for the land.

The auction opened at €320/ac and the hammer dropped after 17 rapid-fire bids. The holding was leased by a dairy farmer, with the underbidder in tillage.

Coogan also leased a farm at Coolrain, Camross, Co Laois by auction on the same day.

The grassland farm was let in two blocks of 24ac and 31.5ac. There were cattle handling facilities with both sections, but no farm buildings.

The 24ac block made €480/ac, with the 31.5ac section making €500/ac. Both are understood to have been taken by drystock farmers. The holding was leased for a 10-year term.

Commenting on the two leases, Coogan said it was obvious from the packed auction room and the pace of the bidding that there was still very strong demand for land.

Well-known auctioneer, Tom Crosse of GVM in Limerick, agreed that demand for land for both long-term and short-term leases remained firm.

However, he maintained that farmers were being “a little more sensible because of where milk prices are now”.

Speaking on the Inside Dairy Podcast for the Irish Farmers Journal, Crosse said rental prices in Limerick were generally in or around €300/ac, with €350-400/ac being paid in Tipperary.

Interestingly, Crosse maintained that there have been suggestions in some quarters of land rentals involving dairy farmers being tied to milk prices.