Land letting prices have dropped back from the high levels recorded last spring, but are still well up on 2022.

Auctioneers report intense demand for land from dairy farmers, with increased levels of pre-Christmas activity this year.

Good-quality grassland is generally making between €320/ac and €400/ac, with stubble ground for grain making around €300/ac.

Mitchelstown auctioneer, Eamonn O’Brien said dairy farmers were again setting the pace for land in east Cork, with the loss of land to solar farms adding to the competition.

O’Brien said good-quality grassland was generally making from €320/ac to €370/ac. This is back €70/ac on last spring, but up €80/ac on 2022, he pointed out.

However, dairy farmers who are struggling to secure land due to the nitrates cut are paying more for ground, O’Brien maintained.

Two blocks of tillage land he let for seven years recently made €400/ac and €460/ac; and the ground has to be reseeded.

David Quinn of Carnew and Gorey predicted that average rental prices will hold this year, but the €500/ac paid last spring is unlikely to be repeated.

He said land in south Wicklow was generally making €280/ac to €320/ac, while grazing ground in Wexford is making €300/ac to €400/ac.

Stephen Barry of Raymond Potterton Auctioneers in Navan said €330/ac to €350/ac was the general run of the market for good-quality grazing land at the moment, with stubble ground for grain making around €300/ac.

“The full implications of the nitrates cut has dawned on dairy farmers, and we’re finding lads travelling further for land,” Barry said.

Competition

He predicted that competition for ground will build through the spring.

Meanwhile, Castlecomer-based auctioneer Joseph Coogan secured €380/ac for tillage ground at Jenkinstown, outside Kilkenny city recently. The lands were leased by a dairy farmer.