Part-timers struggle to keep their heads above water

It should not be overlooked that most drystock farms are part-time operations.

Drystock farmers make up most of the 28% of all Irish farms where the farmer has an off-farm job, and most of the 51% of farms where either the holder and/or spouse has an off-farm job.

These are 2013 figures, both marginally higher than in 2012, a sign of economic revival which will hopefully allow more farmers take up off-farm jobs which are likely to be much more rewarding than cattle farming.

Many drystock farms are small, and their owners have taken advantage of the low labour input required, by taking up off-farm employment, wherever it is available.

Overall, it is estimated that on 75% of Irish farms, either the farmer and/or spouse has another source of off-farm income, although it may come from pensions or other social welfare payments rather than from employment.

It is this off-farm income, or the single farm payment, that largely keeps cattle farmers’ heads above water, and gets them through years like 2012, when costs of beef production exceeded cattle sales on Irish farms. Or a year like 2014, when Irish beef farmers are some €106 million behind last year in their earnings, according to an ICMSA analysis which their President, John Comer, brought to the attention of Taoiseach Enda Kenny during a meeting last week.

Even the most efficient, high-performance, full-time suckler farms are only making €4,000 per annum out of 70 cows in a 100-acre unit. That is why few cattle farmers can afford to spend their full working time on the farm.

Never very profitable or secure, cattle farming has become a sideline activity in modern Ireland.

However, this “hobby” happens on over 90,000 farms, and accounts for €2.1 billion of agricultural output (30%).

According to the Government, the best way to keep it going is to become technically proficient, using the latest methods. That’s why the full range of the technology for top-class beef farming was put on show at the recent Teagasc open day in Co Meath.

But how realistic is it to expect part-time farmers to excel technologically? The challenge to produce beef efficiently, on farms which are mostly under-capitalised due to low profitability, cannot be underestimated. Nor can the weather challenge be underestimated; in 2013, it delayed the grazing season until mid-May. Nor can the market challenge be underestimated. ICMSA posed the question last week — where did the missing €106 million of beef earnings go this year?