"Sales men are willing to talk, but they are not willing to give a price," contractor and farmer Pat Fennell from Stradbally, Co Waterford, told the Irish Farmers Journal at the FTMTA machinery show in Punchestown this week.

The machinery dealers, he said, will not commit to a price despite genuine interest in purchasing.

"We told them [dealers] that we'd be buying now in the next few months for next year, but they are not willing to give us a price.

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"They are waiting to see what people are willing to pay, and we've seen that in a lot of stalls," he said.

Another contractor told the Irish Farmers Journal that the machinery dealers are trying to "suss out the market".

He said that the volatility of beef and milk prices is contributing to the lack of quotes from dealers.

"If cattle prices go up or milk stays as it is, they'll charge more for what they want to sell," he said.

Out of seven or eight dealers at the show, not one of them gave him a price, he said.

Contractor costs

The price of diesel, labour and insurance have been the main drivers of increased contractor costs, according to Fennell, who increased prices by 20% this year.

"Diesel is number one, insurance and labour are next.

"Drivers have to get to work and it's costing them a lot more to get to the yard to start work, so you have to account for that," he said.

He said the other big worry is what trajectory interest rates will take.

"The biggest worry for us and for everyone I'd say is the interest rates if they go up [...] for machinery and even farm buildings.

"And it needn't go up too much to make a big difference," he said.

Farm costs

Brothers and farming partners Eugene and Joe Dunphy from Co Waterford told the Irish Farmers Journal that they were not buying machinery on the day, despite having a good bit of machinery at home.

Our electricity bill would be €25,000 a year

They run a joint suckler and dairy enterprise.

"Running costs are enough for farmers to deal with despite buying machinery.

"I bought a load of fertiliser this year and I had to give €17,500. For the same load of fertiliser last year, I gave something over €6,000.

"So it was around €10,000 more and that's just fertiliser," Eugene said.

The running costs alone, he said, would keep you quiet from buying..

"The cost of energy is even crazy, our electricity bill would be €25,000 a year," Joe added.