Figures released by DAERA last week estimate that the total income from farming (TIFF) in NI during 2019 came to £290m, a 25% reduction on the previous year (see page 11).

That is only slightly above the £286m of direct payments farmers received in 2019, so in other words, direct payments made up virtually 100% of farm incomes last year.

It is also worth noting that in five of the previous 10 years, this TIFF figure has actually been below the income received from direct payments. In those five years, NI farmers would have had negative incomes without payments. Those who think agriculture in NI can survive without government support into the future need to think again – taking it away would lead to a radical transformation of our rural areas.

But of course there are exceptions, and it should be recognised that the top end (even in the beef and sheep sector) are able to make a margin before direct payments. And when prices are strong in some sectors (such as pigs in 2019/2020 and dairying in 2017/2018), good profits can be realised.

To get a view of the reliance that each sector generally has on direct payments, it is worth looking at data recorded by DAERA as part of its Farm Business Survey. This concentrates on larger farms with more than half a standard labour requirement (just over 10,000 farms in NI fall into this bracket) and uses information supplied annually by 360 businesses.

The most recent data relating to direct payments on these farms is from 2017/2018, but it is unlikely to have changed much since then.

Highest payments

The highest direct payments are on cereal farms at £34,257, followed by cattle and sheep farms in the LFA at £29,883, dairy farms at £25,460, and cattle and sheep farms in the lowland at £24,048.

If we take those direct payments off the DAERA estimates for farm incomes in 2019/2020, it would leave cereal farms with an average income of £12,859, cattle and sheep in the LFA at -£19,465, dairy farms at £26,504 and lowland cattle and sheep at -£14,239.

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