Direct payments averaged €18,452 per farm in 2019, accounting for 77% of family farm income (FFI), according to the preliminary results for the 2019 National Farm Survey - carried out by Teagasc - which were issued in June and referred to in the Annual Review and Outlook for Agriculture, Food and the Marine. Family farm income is significantly higher on dairy farms than on any other farm type, even when farm size is taken into account. Similarly, when distinguishing between full-time and part-time farms in terms of labour input, dairy farms produce higher family farm income per hectare. With regard to off-farm income, in 2019 over 52% of farm households had a source of off-farm employment income in 2019. “Dairy farm households are more likely to have a source of off-farm income within the household when compared to the other farm systems.

Source: Irish Examiner October 09, 2020 10:35 UTC