18 January 2010

2 minute read

Europe

Speaking at the event, Liam Connolly, head of the National Farm Survey said that farm-gate prices plummeted last year and resulted in the largest annual decline in farm incomes in decades. The dairy sector suffered the largest decline in incomes due to the drop in milk prices and cereal farming had another bad year.

However, Teagasc anticipates that milk prices and dairy farm margins should begin to recover in 2010, but it may be 2011 before the sector returns to normal levels of profitability. It is estimated that about half of the dairy farmers in Ireland recorded a negative net margin in 2009. A recovery in international dairy product prices is now underway and Irish farm gate milk prices should continue to improve.

The 180 delegates attending today’s conferences heard how Irish cattle prices suffered a significant fall in 2009 with finished animal prices down by 10 per cent, store cattle prices down by 11 per cent and weanling prices down by 15 per cent, compared to the previous year. Some recovery in cattle prices is forecast for this year given the decline in the size of the cattle herd both in Ireland and across the EU. Irish cattle prices are forecast to rise by four per cent in 2010, however, over two-thirds of cattle farms are likely to continue making a loss from cattle farming this year.

Teagasc economists predict an upward movement in cereal prices and a reduction in input costs in 2010, which are likely to result in an increase in cereal crop gross margins in Ireland this year. Given the low gross margins in 2009, net margins are estimated to have been negative for all cereal enterprises when overhead costs are taken into account. Despite forecast improvements in input and output prices, the net margin for the average cereal producer is likely to remain negative in 2010

An estimated 6,500 hectares of new land was planted with trees in 2009 with the majority carried out in the Munster counties. Half of the land was planted under the Forest Environment Protection Scheme (FEPS). 2009 saw a substantial increase in the number of applications for planting approval. Funding to plant a further 7,000 hectares in 2010 was allocated in the recent budget.

Farm households have observed a significant decline in household incomes relative to non-farm households over the past 20 years. Dr Cathal O’Donoghue, head of Teagasc Rural Economy Research Centre warned that there is a continuing trend in higher rural poverty. He pointed out that farmers have been hit hard by unemployment with 30 per cent of farmers losing their off-farm jobs between 2008 and 2009.

TheCattleSite News Desk