Building work on farms continues to surge ahead, with 1,337 farm structures granted planning permission in 2018, according to figures obtained from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

Farmers are building markedly bigger sheds, the figures reveal.

Farm development sizes in the most recent figures are 42% bigger than two years previous.

In 2018, planning permissions were equivalent to 1,019,000sq m. This would give an average size of 762sq m per development.

This equates to a 95-cow cubicle shed at 8sq m/cow or a six-bay A-roof slatted shed with slatted pens and a creep area on both sides of a central feed passage.

This is a jump of over 42% or 220sq m, compared with planning permissions in 2016.

That year, successful applications peaked at 1,741 and accounted for 931,000 sq m in total or an average of 534 sq m.

2017 planning

The 2017 planning permissions were for an average size development of 632 sq m.

Building work on Irish farms has been at unprecedented levels over the past four years.

Since quotas were abolished in 2015, some 5,404 planning applications for new agricultural builds were made. The total area of sheds over this period is 3,400,000 sq m or 842 acres.

The Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS), which opened in June 2015, has been a key driver of the expansion, with 19,870 approvals issued to farmers to date.

So far, €126m has been paid out through the scheme, with an average payment of €14,639 made to 8,607 farmers whose payment applications have been processed to date.

Average development size

  • 2018: 762 sq m – 95 cubicle shed (at 8 sq m/cow).
  • 2017: 632 sq m – 79 cubicle shed (at 8 sq m/cow).
  • 2016: 535 sq m – 66 cubicle shed (at 8 sq m/cow).