The overall level of gross new investment on Irish farms increased by 7% in 2025, according to new data.

The Teagasc National Farm Survey 2025 shows that investment totalled over €1.6 billion in 2025 across the 88,000 farms covered by the report.

The highest level of investment was seen on dairy farms where the average spend was €52,174 per farm, up 6% on 2024 levels.

Overall, investment on dairy farms accounted for about half of total farm investment identified in the survey.

Invesment on tillage farms rose 2% year-on-year to €22,763 on average in 2025.

The average investment on beef finishing and store cattle enterprises (cattle other) was €11,614, €6,818 on cattle rearing holdings and €7,669 on sheep farms.

Investment

The survey shows that machinery-related investment was the largest investment category across all farming systems.

Over half of the total average investment on dairy farms last year (nearly €30,000) was related to machinery and over 80% on average tillage farms (almost €19,000).

On drystock farms machinery spending ranged from €4,000 to €7,000 on average.

Investment in buildings averaged at over €20,000 on dairy farms last year.

Investment in land improvement was higher on dairy farms when compared to tillage and drystock farms, at about €4,000 and €1,000 on average in 2025.

Debt

Teagasc noted that despite the increase in investment, average farm-related debt was down by 7% across farm systems in 2025 when compared to the previous year.

Last year, 34% of farms reported having business related debt.

Average debt on dairy farms down 5% year-on-year, with debt on tillage farms up 18%.

The average debt on cattle rearing and sheep farms fell by over 30%, while debt levels on 'cattle other' farms rose by 4%.

When farms without debt are excluded, the average dairyfarm debt in 2025 declined year-on-year to €144,717.

The average debt on cattle rearing farms dropped to €24,967, while there was an increase on cattle other farms to €45,957.

The average debt on sheep farms decreased last year to €25,089, there was also a slight decline on tillage farms where average debt stood at €86,859 in 2025.

Over three quarters of farm related debt was classified as medium to long-term in 2025, 18% related to hire purchase or leasing and the remaining 5% was short-term.