This article is from page 38 of the 2008-08-12 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 38 JPG
IFA President Padraig Walshe has described the recent Teagasc farm income survey which concluded that Irish farm incomes increased by 18 per cent last year as no more than a “flash in the pan”.
The survey, conducted annually by the Teagasc Rural Economy Re- search Centre, found that the average farm income grew to £19,687 during 2007.
Higher milk and cereal prices were the main reason for the increase in average farm incomes last year,
while incomes on cattle and sheep farms actually declined.
Direct payments from the Euro- pean Union remained static in 2007, averaging €16,346 and contributing 31 per cent of farm output and 84 per cent of average farm income.
However, the findings were de- scribed as a flash in the pan by the IFA leader who said 2007 was the most favourable environment in the past 20 years, and already this year, input costs are up by 25 per cent and processors were driving product prices down.
The two best performing sectors in
2007 — milk and grain – have expe- rienced significant price cuts from their peak last year.
Mr Walshe said the Teagasc fig- ures confirm that average income for farmers even in a good year was less than half the average earnings in the public sector. Earnings by full-time farmers were completely inadequate to reward the investment in stock and machinery that is necessary to earn MOD R OES UD ESE
The highest annual level of invest- ment ever recorded on Irish farms occurred in 2007. Gross on-farm investment increased by a massive
76 per cent and amounted to an esti- mated €1.4 billion nationally.
The average gross investment on the farms that did invest in 2007 was €21,000, amounting to 80 per cent of their total farm income. Dairy farms accounted for almost half of WON Oon Reso
Commenting on the results Liam Connolly, Head of the National Farm Survey team, said the two main highlights of the 2007 results were the sizeable increase in dairy and tillage farmer’s incomes and the phenomenal level of on-farm invest- ment at €1.4 billion.”