The ‘state of the nation survey’ – conducted with almost 3,000 farmer participants in recent days by AgriLand and AgriMatters.ie – has revealed that 78% of respondents believe that their farm would not be viable without EU direct payments.

2,921 respondents participated in this broad-ranging, open (online) survey, conducted through AgriLand.

The survey opened on Thursday, September 12, and closed on Monday, September 16.

Only 17% of farmer participants replied “yes” to the question: “Do you think your farm would be viable without EU direct payments?”

The remaining 78% said “no”; their farm would not be viable. A further 5% said that they were not sure or don’t know.

25% of full-time farming respondents said their farm would be viable without payments, compared to just 5% of part-time participants, with 68% and 90% respectively saying they would not be.

69% of beef farmer respondents agreed to some degree that “If the current beef crisis continues, I won’t be able to last much longer”.

20% said they have more than two years, while a further 33% said they don’t know.

63% of respondents revealed that they are not optimistic about the future outlook for farming.

Also, just 33% of participants have identified a successor for their farm. 59% have not yet identified a successor, while a further 8% do not know.

87% of respondents agreed that farming can be a very isolating/lonely profession, while 51% believe “in this day and age young people would be crazy to go into farming”.

Stay tuned to AgriLand for further findings from our comprehensive study in the coming days…