Farmers have reported a pessimistic outlook for the sector in the latest Irish Farmers Journal reader survey of over 1,060 farmers.
Just one in three respondents said that their outlook for farming is positive, 41% reported a negative outlook and over a quarter indicated they were indifferent in their view of the future.
The most positive sector surveyed was dairy, with 43% saying they were upbeat on farming and less than one third reported a negative outlook.
The tillage sector turned up stark results of 59% opting for a pessimistic response when asked on their outlook for the sector in contrast to the 18% who were optimistic.
The results come amid ongoing uncertainty around the future of CAP income supports and after farmers have sustained months of elevated input costs after this spring saw the second global energy price spike since 2022.
Pessimism outweighing hope in all sectors surveyed bar dairy does not appear to have been influenced by the summer’s drought and tightness in fodder stocks across much of the south and east.
Just 30% of farmers in Connacht – the area least affected by low levels of summer rainfall – were positive in their outlook.
This was lower than the 34% of respondents who indicated they were optimistic in Munster and the 32% of respondents who did the same in Leinster.
SHARING OPTIONS