The Teagasc annual review found farm incomes declined by 15% in 2018 amid poor weather conditions. Reacting to the results, farm organisations have said it highlights the need to protect farm incomes.

CAP Budget

Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) president Joe Healy said the figures came as no surprise and that they merely confirmed “an extremely difficult year for farming”. He said that while there was a recovery forecast for 2019, it was dependant on factors outside farmers’ control.

He said: “Average farm incomes are 40% of average earnings in other sectors across the EU. On cattle rearing and sheep farms, direct payments account for up to 115% of average farm income. These direct payments must be maintained, at a minimum.”

He said 2019 will be a critical year for farmers as Brexit looms and decisions will be made on CAP post-2020. He said farmers needed an increase in the CAP budget to account for inflation and provide a small level of security.

Budget failure

Healy’s comments were echoed by Pat McCormack, president of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA). He said the figures could not “and certainly should not” come as a surprise to anyone.

He said a variety of factors had conspired to make 2018 one of the most difficult in recent history. These included extreme weather conditions and a “barely tolerable milk price but utterly insufficient beef prices”.

McCormack said the fall in farm incomes underlined a failure by Government in the most recent budget. He said there was little sign problems faced by farmers were understood, much less the answers.

“The Government seems happy to ignore the utterly destructive problem of farm income volatility even though proven tools to deal with it have been handed to them - not least by ICMSA,” he concluded.

Strategy re-think

Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association (ICSA) president Patrick Kent said the falls in drystock margins meant it was time to “revisit the strategy of asking farmers to run faster for less and less”.

Kent said as costs increased year on year it demonstrated that asking farmers to increase output was “totally flawed”. He said that, instead, Ireland should look at lower production, less inputs and better marketing of niche products like grass-fed suckler beef.

“The key question is who benefits from the increases in our agri food export figures and why is this celebrated by politicians and decision makers when farmers are getting less and less?" he asked.