Just 18% of cattle farms viable - Teagasc report
Just 18% of cattle farms are economically viable, and continue to lag behind dairy farmers in terms of gross margins, according to the latest sustainability report by Teagasc.
The latest figures relate to 2019 and also show that improvement in emissions within the dairy sector are being absorbed by increased cattle numbers.
Teagasc yesterday released its latest report benchmarking the sustainability of a range of farm systems in Ireland. It showed that in 2019 dairying had a gross margin per hectare of €1,793, which equated to a viability of 74%, ie three quarters of dairy farmers are economically viable. This was the second best year in the period 2014-2019 after €2,111 in 2017.
Viability
Cattle meanwhile had a gross margin per hectare of just €497, which equated to a viability of 18%. The 2019 figure was the third best year in the period 2014-2019 in terms of gross margin per ha, with €374 in 2014 the worst (with a viability rating of 15%). Other considerations resulted in a ‘household vulnerability’ of 41%.
Sheep meanwhile have a gross margin per ha of €414 (viability 23%); and tillage a gross margin per ha of €921 (viability of 59%).
The report uses the Teagasc National Farm Survey to track the performance of dairy, cattle, sheep and tillage farms in improving their economic, environmental and social sustainability. The study also monitors the adoption of farm innovations to achieve this goal. The report includes newly compiled data for 2019 along with data stretching back through the last decade, allowing for an assessment of farm performance over time.
Lead author of the report, Dr. Cathal Buckley, Teagasc Rural Economy and Development Programme, noted, “Dairy farms have a higher level of economic and social sustainability compared to most other farm systems, but also have higher levels of environmental emissions.
“The data indicate that dairy farmers continue to improve their environmental efficiency with lower levels of greenhouse gas and ammonia emitted per tonne of product produced. However, this improvement continues to be overridden by an increase in overall milk production, with the rising dairy cow population offsetting the improvement in emissions efficiency.
Drystock
“By contrast, drystock farms have lower levels of economic sustainability but also have lower levels of environmental emissions. Tillage farms were between dairy and drystock farms in terms of economic sustainability, but also have lower levels of environmental emissions. Notably, the majority of emissions on specialist tillage farms tend to be generated from drystock enterprises on the farm”.
Trevor Donnellan, Head of the Agricultural Economics & Farm Surveys Department in Teagasc, and co-author of the report noted, “Economic and environmental indicators were negatively affected in 2018 due to adverse weather conditions, but the more typical weather conditions observed in 2019 meant that this negative development was reversed.
“The capacity of year to year weather variability to affect the trend in key sustainability metrics needs to be considered in assessing trends over time. It’s for this reason that the report publishes results on a three year rolling average basis, in addition to simple annual data. The smoothing introduced by the rolling average process provides a trend that is more representative of the underlying developments.”
Policy
Commenting on the release of the report, Teagasc Director, Professor Gerry Boyle, stated, “The extensive detail available in the Teagasc Sustainability Report provides policymakers with valuable information for policy design. The report illustrates that Teagasc, as a member of the EU Farm Accountancy Data Network, can provide guidance to peers across the EU in how best to measure sustainability in a wider sense, as envisaged in the EU Farm to Fork initiative. In particular, the increased provision of environmental metrics will be a requirement to allow a transition to a Farm Sustainability Data Network, as proposed under the Farm to Fork Strategy.”