Suckler income drop is a crisis

According to the Teagasc – conducted across 85,000 farms nationwide – average income for Irish farmers in 2023 dropped under €20,000, the lowest on record for decades.

The income situation on suckler/calf rearing farms is particularly perilous, according to the IFA, as average annual returns in this sector dropped to just €7,400 last year.

Sheep farmers, with an average income of €12,600 and beef finishers [€14,700], also suffered huge drops in income after what had been a record year in 2022.

According to the IFA’s National Livestock Committee, the findings of the Teagasc survey ‘laid bare the harsh realities’ of the income situation for suckler and beef farmers.

IFA National Livestock Chair Declan Hanrahan said this week that there was now no hiding place for the Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue or his Government colleagues on the farm incomes crisis.

“Low incomes and a flawed approach to the CAP, which has drained supports from our most productive suckler and beef farmers, is leaving the entire sector in a very precarious situation.

“The exodus from suckler production is evident for all to see. If meaningful actions don’t happen, we will lose this vital national resource which is the bedrock on which our €3bn in beef exports is built and the lifeblood of rural communities throughout the country,” said Declan Hanrahan.

Suckler farmers suffered a 15% drop in income last year which brought returns on such enterprises down to their lowest ever level represented a situation which wasn’t sustainable, according to the IFA.

Galway IFA Chair, Stephen Canavan told the Farming Tribune that the current low levels of income in livestock farming – both sheep and cattle – was unsustainable without more Government supports.

Pictured: Galway IFA Chair, Stephen Canavan