Suckler farmers forced into part-time work

ABOUT 30% of full-time suckler farmers in the GVM Marts producer groups have gone part-time in the past six years.

Rising costs are forcing more and more suckler farmers into part-time farming, says Gary Fisher, the Teagasc advisor who has worked over the past six years with the GVM Marts group in developing seven producer groups of suckler farmers in counties Limerick, Cork, Clare and Offaly.

Even farmers doing a good job technically have found their costs were too high, he said. But he was encouraged to find that the suckler farmers who took "off-farm" employment were investing their additional non-farming income back into their farms.