One-fifth of farmers spend in excess of €1,000 each year on paperwork and consultants in order to comply with farm regulations, an Irish Farmers Journal survey of 885 farmers has found.
The same proportion of farmers also commit a day on average preparing for each on-farm inspection.
While the survey found that 57% of the 885 respondents spent less than €600 each year on paperwork related to farming rules and regulations, these costs exceeded €1,200 for 24% of dairy farmers.
In fact, 36% of dairy farmers spent more than €1,000 per year on paperwork and consultants in order to comply with farm rules and regulations, the survey found.
Paperwork was not as big an expense for drystock farmers. Sixty-nine per cent of sheep farmers and 61% of suckler farmers spent less than €600 per year on paperwork linked to farm regulations, while costs exceeded €1,000 for just 16% of those involved in the enterprises.
Finishers
Cattle finishers spent the least on regulatory-related paperwork. Bureaucratic costs topped €1,000 for 15% of the finishers surveyed, while 68% spent less than €600 a year.
Time spent preparing for inspections was a further cost for farmers.
The survey found that 21% of respondents committed at least a day to preparefor each on-farm inspection. However, 39% of farms committed at least six hours in preparation time for each farm inspection. This is a major cost to the sector.
Dairy farmers committed the most time to preparing for inspections.
Preparing
Twenty-nine per cent spent nine hours or more preparing for on-farm inspections, with a further 19% stating that they committed between six and nine hours.
Thirty-eight per cent of sheep farmers and cattle finishers committed six hours or more to preparing for inspections, while the corresponding figure was 37% for suckler farmers and 29% for those involved in crop production.
When asked what type of inspection they had in the previous 12 months, 72% of the farmer respondents had a Bord Bia audit, 41% had Department of Agriculture inspections of some kind, 9% had county council inspections, while 2% were inspected by the National Parks and Wildlife Service.
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