Some 96% of farmers are concerned about their farm’s profitability, according to a survey of over 1,500 farmers by the Irish Farmers Journal.

Within this, 40% of farmers say they are ‘very’ concerned, 23% ‘moderately’, 22% ‘somewhat’ and 11% ‘slightly’ concerned.

Farmer concerns around profitability have worsened, with 45% of beef and 50% of sheep farmers stating they are ‘very’ concerned, compared to three months ago.

The corresponding figures for dairy and tillage farmers, at 27% and 31% respectively, indicate that there are less farm profitability concerns in these sectors.

Some 28% of dairy farmers say they have slight or no concerns about farm profitability. Meanwhile, only 10% of both sheep and beef farmers share the same view.

Profitability concerns are lowest in Leinster and Munster, with 38% of the farmers surveyed in each province saying that are ‘very’ concerned, and this is higher in Connacht (44%) and Ulster (42%).

Ulster saw the highest number of farmers with no profitability concerns at all, at 6% while only 2% of farmers in Connacht shared the same view.

Some 62% of the farmers surveyed believe their incomes will decline this year, with 24% forecasting this loss to be greater than 20%.

However, 17% of farmers predict their incomes will increase to some extent over the next year and 21% believe it will stay the same.

Sheep farmers are most pessimistic in relation to future incomes, with 76% of those surveyed believing their earnings with fall to some extent over the next year. Some 69% of beef, 37% of dairy and 53% of tillage farmers predict income loss over the same period, while 63% of dairy and 31% of beef farmers think their incomes will stay the same or increase.

Farmers in Leinster and Munster again remain similar in their income outlook with 56% in each predicting their incomes will fall, while 74% of Connacht farmers and 68% of Ulster farmers share the same view.

Despite concerns, 37% of farmers remain positive when it comes to their current farming outlook. However, there are again differences across the farm sectors with 31% of sheep, 32% of beef, 42% of tillage and 56% of dairy farmers surveyed remaining positive.