Teagasc’s head of dairy knowledge transfer Joe Patton has highlighted this week that the average income figures reported in the 2023 National Farm Survey mask the degree of income challenge on some farms.

Speaking at an IFA farm finance meeting in Mullingar on Monday, Patton said that there is a cohort of dairy farmers who saw incomes as low as €4,000 last year.

Managing costs should be a priority for all farms, but especially those struggling on the income and cashflow fronts, Patton said, as farmers prepare for the housing period after a year of poor grass growth.

“There is a chunk of farmers out there who milked cows for 300 days or 365 days of the year and they made four grand out of it for milking 100 cows and that is not a pretty place to be,” he told farmers.

“Not everyone can make cost savings, I fully recognise that. People are tied into leases; they are tied into loans and there are also differences in domestic situations as to how much money is needed.”