Only around a quarter of farms involved in the sheep sector were economically viable last year, according to the Teagasc National Farm Survey Sustainability Report 2020.
Across the farms surveyed, only 26% were defined as economically viable as of 2020.
The average gross output/ha for sheep farms was €1,314 in 2020 and the average gross margin was €507/ha.
Ranked into groups of three by economic performance, the proportion of viable sheep farms ranged from 42% for the top third to just 11% for the bottom third.
The average income/labour unit was €18,568 last year. Similarly to cattle farms, there was a large range in economic performance, with the top third of sheep farms earning a mean income/labour unit of €27,424, compared with €9,224 for the bottom third.
Median income (the value which is halfway between the highest value and the lowest) in these groups were €23,250 for the higher third; €14,818 for the middle third; and €7,365 for the lower third.
For the average sheep farm, approximately 60% of output value was generated from the market, with the remaining 40% derived from direct payments. Farms generating more of their output through the market performed better generally, with the top third of farms producing 69% of their output via the market, and the bottom third 51%.
The average family farm income/ha in the sector in 2020 was €435. Across the three cohorts this average ranged from €744/ha for the top third to only €147/ha for the bottom third.
Environmental sustainability on sheep farms
In 2020, the average sheep farm produced roughly 126.8t of CO2 equivalent (CO2e) of emissions. However, just under half (49.1%) of these emissions were generated by sheep enterprises, with the slight majority produced by cattle enterprises, and occasional minor arable enterprises.
On average, sheep farms emitted 3.1t CO2e/ha. Higher emissions/ha were associated with the more profitable farms, with the top third producing just short of 4t CO2e/ha, and the lowest third producing just under 2t CO2e/ha.
However, emissions intensity/kg of liveweight produced were higher for the lower economically performing farms. The top and middle third of farms produced 7kg to 7.2kg of CO2e/kg of liveweight produced, while for the lower third of farms this figure was 13.2kg CO2e.
The average sheep farm emitted 0.15t of energy-based CO2e/ha, with higher energy-based emissions associated with more profitable farms. However, these farms again performed better than less profitable farms when compared to liveweight kilogrammes produced.
Specialist sheep farms emitted an average of 0.52t of ammonia in 2020, but 77% of this related to cattle enterprises on sheep farms. These farms produced 13.1kg of ammonia/ha last year, with the more profitable farms producing higher per-hectare ammonia levels.
The average sheep farm produced 0.02kg of ammonia/liveweight kilogramme in 2020 and, again, the more profitable farms performed better (i.e. lower ammonia emissions/liveweight kilogramme) on this metric.
Higher nitrogen (N) surplus on sheep farms was associated with economic performance, with the higher third of farms having an average N surplus of 69.3kg/ha, compared with 42.1kg/ha for the middle third and 30.6kg/ha for the bottom third.
Nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) on average across all sheep farms in 2020 was 30.2%, with the more profitable farms performing better.
The average liveweight output/kg of N surplus was 12.5kg, with more economically viable sheep farms having higher figures for this.
Phosphorous (P) balances across all specialist sheep farms were 4kg/ha to 6kg/ha on average in 2020.
Farmgate-level P use efficiency (PUE) averaged 60.9% across these farms ,with higher economically performing farms having above average figures on this.