Drystock incomes have converged with tillage incomes, according to Trevor Donnellan of Teagasc. Speaking at the National Tillage Conference, he said tillage margin per hectare is quite low compared to other systems in agriculture. Earlier on Wednesday, director Frank O’Mara had said that tillage incomes are in the doldrums.

Donnellan said external competitiveness in the EU is not an issue and that Irish farmers tend to do better than EU counterparts when it comes to the ratio of outputs to inputs, but scale is an issue on Irish tillage farms.

He noted that work is also underway to benchmark Ireland against countries outside the EU like Argentina, Australia, Russia and the US.

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He said research on the impact of bio-stimulants and integrated pest management on competitiveness is being examined.