There are currently 2,241 active registered farm partnerships in the country, figures from the Department of Agriculture show. A total of 1,882 new farm partnerships have been registered since 2015. The majority of farm partnerships are dairy, beef or a combination of both. The remainder are a mixture of different livestock systems and or tillage (Figure 2).

The Department launched its farm partnership register in 2015 and 2,432 have been entered into it since then. Of these, 191 are now dissolved. A total of 550 legacy milk production partnerships (MPP) were moved on to the register when it was established.

Almost 20% of the partnerships that were registered are in Co Cork, while Tipperary accounts for 12%.

The breakdown of registered farm partnerships by county (including MPPs and dissolved partnerships) can be seen in Figure 1.

Lyons family Co Wexford

Ger Lyons (pictured below), his wife Aileen and son Michael have been in a partnership for 18 months. It is a family farm partnership that was created through the land mobility service. Ger says he finds it is an ideal way of sharing responsibility and workload on the farm. It also allows the family to look at investments with a long-term view.

“There has to be give and take on both sides for it to work. There are times you have to stand back and say he’s young and is more active. You’re going to have a different outlook. When it comes to spending money, at least you know you’ve a lad coming in. You look at investments more for the longer term,” he says.

“The most important thing to remember is that the young guy is looking at it for the next 30 to 40 years, while I’m only looking at the next decade. The banks recognise that too. We’ve expanded on leased land and have been able to keep Michael here. The other alternative is that he’d be working with farm relief or out on another holding.” The next step is to establish a limited company.

Duffy family Co Cavan

Thomas Duffy entered a partnership with his parents, Ned and Kathleen, six months ago. For the two years prior to that, he had a joint herd number with his father.

He said getting into a partnership gave his parents a bit of freedom while still playing an active role in the farm.

Thomas advises that going into partnership is best done by taking responsibility for different sections of the enterprise in stages.

“I took over the heifer-rearing first. In the first year I overfed everything, but in the second year I looked at the finances and pulled back. I managed to move from having three-year-old to two-year-old heifers calving down. I have that history there and proved my ability,” Thomas says.

Weekly meeting

The Duffys have a half-hour meeting once a week to discuss what jobs need to be done or any investments to be made.

“If I were farming in my own right I wouldn’t be answerable to anybody. When things go sideways, it is very easy to blame each other.

‘‘Farmers don’t really worry about people skills; conflict resolution is not taught in agricultural college. There is very little support available.

“I moved out, best thing I ever did. Then you’re not 24/7 talking about the farm. I’m gone out of the farm at 8pm.

‘‘If there is a cow calving, I can still sleep at home. A little bit of separation is good.”