Machinery-related expenditure was the largest investment made on farms in 2023 with dairy farmers spending the most, according to latest figures.
Spending on machinery represented over half of the total investment made on the average dairy farm last year – amounting to nearly €24,000, the Teagasc National Farm Survey 2023 suggests.
On tillage farms machinery-related spending was estimated at over 80% of investment levels – around €19,000, while on drystock farms it was suggested to be in the region of 50-60% of total investment and totaled between €2,800 to €4,700 on average.
system 2023 Source: Teagasc
Next to machinery the largest spend last year by farm families was on buildings with dairy farmers in the lead again in this respect as they allocated nearly €17,000 to investment in buildings.
However there were significantly lower amounts earmarked by other farm systems – estimated to be from under €1,500 to €3,500.
According to Teagasc there was also relatively low spending on land improvement projects last year averaging at just over €3,000 on a typical dairy farm to between €550 and €700 across the other systems.
Investment and debt
Overall investment levels across all farm systems fell back last year compared to figures for 2022.
According to Teagasc, the average family farm income in Ireland slumped by 57% in 2023 to just under €19,925 – down from €46,313 a year earlier.
However in aggregate terms across farm investment totaled more than €1.3 billion in 2023 according to the latest survey – which is representative of almost 85,000 farms.
Although the survey suggests there was a 13% drop in spending for specific projects on the typical dairy farm compared to 2022 dairy farmers still remained the highest investors, spending on average €43,417 per farm in 2023.
In keeping with general trends last year investment declined on tillage farms by 12%year-on-year to €22,966.
There were also much lower levels of spending on sheep farms in 2023, at €5,164 on the average farm.
However in contrast spending projects on cattle farms increased in 2023 compared to 2022 with farmers allocating around €7,300 on average across systems.