Contractor charges see a rise of 5% this year

Some contractor charges are seeing a rise of up to 5% for 2025, while other charges are shown as virtually unchanged, according to the Association of Farm and Forestry Contractors in Ireland (FCI) annual price guide.

In its guide, FCI has said that the increasing costs of new machinery for contractors continues to impact on the sustainability of many Irish agricultural contracting businesses.

Sample prices in its newly published guide include €190-€200/ac, including VAT, for precision chop grass silage for the pit, €190-€202/hour, including VAT, for umbilical slurry spreading, and €25-€27/bale for the contractor to bale, wrap, stack and move silage.

“Profitability remains elusive to many agricultural contractor businesses in 2025, as they struggle to reconcile higher machinery, finance and labour availability with their ambition to deliver Irish farmers a highly skilled and professional service,” said John Hughes, FCI chair.

The FCI outlined that contractors also have new additional costs in 2025, with the combination of the minimum wage increase impact, along with the new legal requirements around the provision of pension funding for employees.

“Fuel price uncertainty remains an issue for agricultural and forestry contractors, and it demands a level of flexibility and understanding from farmer clients at a time of unstable world supplies.

“While fuel prices have risen slightly as we start into 2025, against a background where they stabilised during much of 2024, there are no guarantees that world affairs will not bring about new increases, when the sector has no other fuel or power supply options,” it said.

Spend per farm

Figures from the Teagasc National Farm Survey for 2023 showed that the average amount spent on contractor services by Irish farmers increased to €7,340 per farm in 2023, up from €4,162 in 2015. This Teagasc data also indicates that in 2023, Irish farmers spent more than €950m on agricultural contracting services.