Farm incomes: More questions than answers

FIGURES detailing farm incomes released by Teagasc yesterday confirmed that the gap between successful farmers and those less so is widening just as it is in nearly every sphere of domestic and international societies.

Last year dairy farm incomes, at an average of €68,877 and up 9% on the previous year, were the highest since Teagasc began its National Farm Survey over 40 years ago.

The survey also recorded that a growing number of farmers had farm incomes of less than €10,000 but, counterbalancing that grim figure at the other end of the spectrum, more farms crossed the €50,000 income threshold. The gap between the haves and the have-nots grows in rural Ireland too. The average income from rearing cattle was just €10,271 but farmers who fattened cattle earned €13,834. If these two last figures were expressed on a per-hour-worked basis they would probably be well below the minimum wage.

These figures, even if they seem implausible to a great many urban dwellers, raise questions, not least of which is why do Irish farmers — on foot of these hardly spectacular figures — continue to pay more for farm land than nearly any of their international peers? Another might be why do they, especially those rearing or fattening cattle, bother?

Is it a lifestyle choice or a deep emotional commitment to a way of living that hardly seems viable? Are low-income farms businesses or hobbies, and how sustainable are they?

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