The Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) said the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon must build supports for suckler farmers in next week’s Budget to the €300/cow commitment he and his party gave to farmers in their election manifesto.

IFA Livestock chair Declan Hanrahan said a critical part of this funding is through national exchequer funding which must be allocated each year in the Budget.

“€28 million was provided in last year’s Budget to bring payments to €225/cow for the first 22 cows this year. This must be built on to bring the payment to €300/cow for all suckler cows," Hanrahan said.

The IFA livestock chairperson said the suckler sector has lost over 250,000 cows in the last 10 years.

The IFA said that suckler farming is based on small-scale vulnerable farms, predominantly on the west coast of Ireland, which are heavily dependent on direct supports for family farm income, with this dependence at 132% for 2024 alone.

Declan Hanrahan said the viability and long-term sustainability of suckler farming is heavily reliant on the levels of direct support provided to the sector.

Market prices are important, but suckler farmers do not have the financial capacity to invest long term on their farms with the volatility of market prices, the association has argued.

“We have had a good year this year where for the first time in most suckler farmers’ memory, we are getting a price that reflects the actual production costs on farms but there is no guarantee these prices will be available next year,” Hanrahan continued..

The IFA chair said the minister cannot shy away from the political commitment given to suckler farmers, nor can he attempt to justify failing to provide increased supports to suckler farmers based on one good year of sales from the sector.

He said suckler farmers took Minister Heydon and his government colleagues at their word when they all committed to increasing the supports to suckler farmers in advance of the last general election.

"Next week’s Budget must be used by them to honour that commitment and bring payments to €300/cow," Hanrahan said.

Meanwhile, IFA Farm Business chair, Bill O’Keeffe has called on Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe and Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers to ensure that Ireland’s most important indigenous sector - agri-food - and in particular farmers, receive the necessary supports in Budget 2026.

Bill O’Keeffe acknowledged the significant economic challenges currently facing the country but stressed that the government must also recognise the vital and permanent role of agriculture in the national economy.

“Agriculture is here to stay and will continue to contribute, regardless of geopolitical uncertainty,” he stated.

Tillage farmers must be supported in Budget 2026, according to the IFA.

“Without immediate and substantial commitments next week, many tillage farmers will be forced out of the sector. IFA will not accept the demise of this critical part of Irish agriculture," O'Keeffe said.

"Despite much-needed improvements in some commodity prices in 2025, many farmers remain dependent on our farm schemes, with the majority of livestock and tillage farmers earning below the national industrial wage.”

The IFA has outlined several priority measures that must be delivered in Budget 2026, including:

Support for the tillage sector;
Continuation of existing taxation reliefs, particularly those facilitating generational renewal;
Increased funding for TB compensation and eradication scheme;
Increased funding allocation to Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Schemes (TAMS);
A permanent exemption for actively farmed land from Residential Zoned Land Tax (RZLT);
Enhanced funding for farming schemes;
Dedicated funding for farmers from the Climate and Nature Fund.

IFA Rural Development chair John Curran said farmers, across all sectors, need tangible support even more so in this Budget than last year.

“It’s additional supports, not redistributed support that’s needed. We need existing supports to remain, and others, such as the ANC [Areas of Natural Constraints] budget, to revert back to where they were in the past," he said.

"Time will tell how much our minister and elected representatives really understand the pressures on-farm at the moment."