Production costs fell on sheep farms last year thanks to a combination of lower feed and fertiliser expenditure which helped to deliver a 115% jump in average incomes, according to a new report today (Monday, June 23).

The report produced by economists at Teagasc shows that the average income on sheep farms more than doubled last year to just under €28,000.

Among the key factors behind this was the increase in lamb prices and also the timing of some farm payments - direct payments increased by 32% year-on-year to an average €28,610.

According to the Teagasc National Farm Survey 2024 direct costs were down by on sheep farms by 2% to €24,840, while overhead costs also went down 8% to €22,241 last year.

However it also shows that one of the biggest costs for farmers was spending on concentrate feed, which increased in 2024 by 4% to €10,057 on average.

The Teagasc report highlights that the volume of concentrates used increased year-on-year.

Meanwhile spending on purchased bulky feed also increased significantly to €1,147 compared to fertiliser expenditure on the average sheep farm which fell by 26% compared to 2023, to €2,943.

The latest report also highlights that the volume of nitrogen based fertiliser used on sheep farms increased in 2024 - following a number of years of "significant reduction".

The annual National Farm Survey represents around 88,000 farms in Ireland in 2024 - 16% of these are identified as specialist sheep farms.

There were approximately 14,013 sheep farms represented in the survey in 2024

The survey shows that when compared to 2023 the number of sheep farms that earned a family farm income (FFI) of less than €5,000 was down 25 percentage points to 12% in 2024.

Just 10% of sheep farms reported an income of between €5,000 and €10,000 in 2024 - which represented a 7 percentage point decrease compared to 2023.

Teagasc economists also found that the proportion of farms earning on average FFI between €10,000 and €20,000 increased by 5 percentage points to 22% percent while the number of sheep farms earning between €20,000 and €50,000 increased by 14 percentage points to 40%.

In addition to this the number of sheep farms earning above €50,000 increased by 14percentage points to 17% on average.