As reaction continues to last week’s release of the National Farm Survey 2023 report, and the stark picture it painted in terms of farm incomes, one farm organisation has said that there is “no hiding place” for the government on suckler and beef farmer incomes.
The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) has said that the results of the survey should be a “wake-up call” for the government, with suckler farm incomes dropping to the lowest levels ever recorded through the National Farm Survey.
According to Declan Hanrahan, the IFA’s national livestock chairperson, the sector is “in a very precarious situation”, due to low income and what he claimed was a “flawed approach” to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which has, he said, “drained supports from our most productive suckler and beef farmers”.
“If meaningful actions don’t happen, we will lose this vital national resource which is the bedrock on which our €3 billion in beef exports is built, and the lifeblood of rural communities throughout the country.
“AÂ drop of 15% in family farm income in this already low-income vulnerable sector has brought incomes to the lowest levels ever recorded for suckler farms, a situation that is not sustainable and cannot be allowed to continue,” Hanrahan said.
He called for the government and Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue to address the income problem through Budget 2025.
“Suckler farmers depend on direct supports for over 230% of family farm income. While the figures show an increase in the levels of the supports in the sector, the reality of how these supports are structured is contributing to the fall in cow numbers,” Hanrahan said.
“The decline of the suckler herd will only be stopped when the direct supports on the cow are brought to at least €300/cow in schemes that are practical to implement. We have €200/head in supports for the first 22 cows, but a significant chunk of these supports is eroded from costs.”
According to the IFA national livestock chairperson, beef finishers have been hardest hit as a result to changes to CAP. He said their payments have been “severely eroded”.
“These farms experienced a drop of 19% in income last year, with almost 40% having a family farm income of less than €5,000,” Hanrahan said.
He added: “We have heard from the Minister for Agriculture and his government colleagues how important suckler and beef farmers are to the national economy… It’s time to turn these words into meaningful actions.”
He called for the government to provide total payments of €300 per cow for suckler cows and cattle rearing, and finishing supports of €100 per animal, in the upcoming budget.
National Farm Survey
The IFA has also said income challenges outlined in the National Farm Survey are, in the case of hill and sheep farmers, being compounded by delays to payments under the Agri Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES).
Caillin Conneely, the IFA’s hill farming chairperson, said: “These figures are particularly stark, and really bring home the financial pressure across all sectors. For sheep farmers, incomes were back 22% to only €12,625. That’s only about a quarter of the average industrial wage.
“It hammers home the consequence of the delayed ACRES payments and the impact of lost payments from non-productive investments [or] landscape actions. It also emphasises the need for the (Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine) to honour commitments… [to] apply maximum flexibility around recouping any excess interim payment.
Conneely called for the department to “get its house in order”, and he called for all farmers in the co-operation project stream of ACRES to be paid the maximum €10,500 for the year.
“It’s not the farmers’ fault that the (non-productive investments) are not out, nor that applications for landscape actions aren’t open,” he added.