Land owners and farmers will be looking anxiously to see how the rental market performs over the coming weeks, as negotiations kick-off on reviews of existing leases.

While the collapse in milk prices has taken some bite out of demand levels, auctioneers claimed there was no evidence of an immediate impact on land rental prices.

They insisted long-term leases were being renewed at existing price levels.

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However, farm consultants maintained a reduction in rental prices was being sought by both dairy and beef farmers, and this had taken much of the heat out of the market.

Among the properties that could act as a ‘weather-vane’ for the wider rental market is a 130ac non-residential holding at Ballygarret, Co Wexford.

The farm is being leased by local auctioneer David Quinn and he expects it to make somewhere between the “high €200s and the low €300s”.

There’s still a strong appetite for land among farmers, and demand is continuing to outstrip supply, Quinn said.

“For every call we get from a landowner looking to lease their place, we have three or four from farmers looking to take on land,” the Wexford-Wicklow auctioneer claimed.

Quinn has rented three farms in recent weeks.

A 50ac farm in south Wexford was leased by a dairy farmer for €400/ac, a further 60ac in the south of the county in vegetables and root crops also made €400/ac, while a 40ac block of tillage ground in north Wexford made €350/ac.

Mitchelstown, Co Cork, auctioneer, Eamonn O’Brien, accepted the sharp fall in milk price had a negative impact on sentiment among farmers.

The extent to which this will be reflected in the land sale and rental market will be seen in the coming weeks, he said.

O’Brien maintained that the level of farmer interest in a 60ac farm, which he has for sale outside Castlelyons in east Cork, will be a good indicator of the market.

Nervousness in market

Meanwhile, well-known north Tipperary farm consultant PJ Phelan claimed that demand for land had already taken a hit.

“A lot of nervousness has come into the market,” Phelan said.

“Competition between dairy farmers has weakened and beef farmers who purchased expensive store cattle last autumn won’t be in a position to pay as much as they paid in the past,” he maintained.

“And tillage farmers are reluctant to take on new land, or continue with existing leases, without a significant reduction in price,” he added. “The money just isn’t in it.”