Friday's agriculture output and input cost index for March, released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), shows how quickly farmer margins are coming under pressure.

Input prices - costs to farmers - dropped by less than two points, while output prices - payments farmers received - dropped six points to 146, taking the fall since the start of the year to 17 points.

In the first three months, costs only dropped four points.

The huge different in pace of the fall in incomes and the fall in prices is clear in a long-term chart of the data, where the start of 2023 shows a plunge in output prices (see Figure 1).

Looking at some of the details in the data, the price paid for milk was the biggest loser and now stands below the level in March 2022.

On the cost side, feed and electricity prices remain well ahead of their levels from a year ago. Fertilisers show a 2% drop over the past 12 months.