Income volatility is curtailing farm succession

ICMSA have said more needs to be done to make farming more attractive as a career option.

ICMSA have found that young farmers cite income uncertainty as the most off-putting factor of entering the industry.

Recently, the Tánaiste and Minister of Agriculture met with members of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA) regarding the survival of family farms.

The ICMSA have said farm succession and farm income volatility are inextricably linked.

Deputy President of ICMSA, Eamon Carroll, after meeting with both the Agricultural Minister, Martin Heydon, and the Tánaiste, Simon Harris, said he had told both Government figures that every single survey or forum of young farmers or farmers’ children identified the massive uncertainty around income as the single most off-putting factor in choosing to farm for a living.

“We have tried and tried again to explain to successive Governments that it’s increasingly obvious that we have to ‘smooth off’ the most volatile elements of farm income if we are to make it in any way comparably attractive for young people. We have to accept that there are other options and sectors out there with whom farming is in competition for those young people, and those competitor sectors can tell these 25-year-olds what they will earn next year, to the cent. By contrast, we can’t even tell to within €1,000.

There’s no point in saying that the market will decide what they earn – we know that – the point is we have to come up with a mechanism that allows farmers to put away funds in ‘Good’ years that they can draw down in ‘Bad’ years – and that mechanism has to be more significant and fundamental than ordinary income-averaging. There has to be a degree of predictability”, Mr Carroll said.

He also made the point that in Ireland's current housing crisis, where most young people will need and rely on a mortgage to even have a chance of entering the market, a mortgage will begin with an enquiry about earnings. The lack of financial reliability every year is putting young farmers off committing to the farming sector and taking on the family farm.

“The Commission on Generational Renewal is now reported to be issuing its findings in September, which’ll be much too late to have any recommendations included in Budget 2026. There is also really significant uncertainty around the Nitrates Derogation, CAP and TB, to name three issues. We’ll have lost a year that, bluntly, we don’t have to lose.

This just has to be faced up to, and we must start making farming an attractive option for the next generation or our whole system of factory farms – that is our heritage and the foundation of our food and farming system – just will not be able to keep going,” the ICMSA Deputy President impassioned.

Mr Carroll concluded by observing that the Government have an opportunity in Budget 2026 to address income volatility: “They made a commitment in Budget 2025 and ICMSA is calling on them to deliver an effective income volatility measure in Budget 2026, to deliver a workable Nitrates Derogation and deliver a workable plan for TB that addresses the worrying levels and critically works for farmers.”