Incomes set to rise 13% in 2014 as input costs fall

One of the major issues Irish farming has faced over the last six years has been the enormous increase in the price of some of the key inputs used.

Data from the CSO show the rapid and persistent increase in feed, fertiliser and farm diesel prices that has been a feature each year since the middle of the last decade.

This increase in production costs was compounded over the last couple of year with the rise in feed and fertiliser use — necessitated to deal with the effects of the fodder crisis. Teagasc estimates that the fodder crisis alone has cost the agriculture sector in the region of €400m. Of course the price of farm outputs such as milk and beef have also been on the rise. But the net result is that the increase in average farm incomes in recent years has been smaller than would have otherwise been achieved if farm production costs had remained static.