The average dairy farm income in 2018 fell 31% to €61,273 in 2018, the Teagasc National Farm Survey has revealed.Difficult weather conditions and increases in production costs were the main drivers of the drop in incomes, with milk prices and a recovery in production insulating the sector from further income drops.
The average dairy farm income in 2018 fell 31% to €61,273 in 2018, the Teagasc National Farm Survey has revealed.
Difficult weather conditions and increases in production costs were the main drivers of the drop in incomes, with milk prices and a recovery in production insulating the sector from further income drops.
Last year, production costs increased by 17% on dairy farms, while input costs were up by 23%.
The difficult weather conditions saw concentrate costs increase by 43% to 1,364kg/cow, on average.
For a dairy farmer with 78 cows, the average bill for concentrates came to €41,984. Expenditure on purchased bulk feed also increased strongly, by 85%, to €5,966 on average.
Fertiliser expenditure also increased for dairy farmers in 2018, up 14% to €13,716 on average.
Teagasc attributes this to both increased usage to build and replace fodder stocks, and a general increase in price. Contracting charges were also up, by 20%, to €11,099.
Just over half of dairy farms reported a farm income above €50,000 in 2018, compared with almost three-quarters in 2017.
Of this number, 16% earned more than €100,000. This was half of the proportion in that income category the previous year.
In 2018, 25% of dairy farms earned an income of less than €30,000, an increase of 13% on 2017. Similarly, the proportion of farmers earning between €30,000 and €50,000 increased from 15% to 20% with those earning between €50,000 and €70,000 going from 15% to 23%.
It was dairy farmers earning between €70,000 and €100,000 who saw a fall in income in 2018 of 16%.
Dairy farm size
40% of dairy farmers are farming on between 50ha and 100ha.35% of dairy farmers are farming in the 30ha to 50ha bracket.18% of dairy farmers are farming under 30ha.7% of dairy farmers are farming above 100ha. Where are Ireland’s dairy farms?In terms of the proportion of dairy farms located in each region, the vast majority, 11,708 (72%) are located in the south which would be considered a traditional dairy area.
For the purpose of the survey, the south consists of all of Munster, plus Kilkenny, Carlow and Wexford.
A further 2,352 are located in the northern and western region, which consists of all of Connacht, plus Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan.
Some 2,014 dairy farms are in the eastern and midlands region, where more recent dairy expansion has been occurring since the abolition of EU milk quotas. This region consists of counties Dublin, Kildare, Meath, Wicklow, Louth, Laois, Longford, Offaly and Westmeath.
Key statistics for dairying in 2018
The average dairy herd size in 2018 was 78.The average dairy stocking rate was 2.08/ha in 2018.The average milk produced per hectare in 2018 was 11,415l.The average utilisable agricultural area in 2018 was 58ha. Read more
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