On the pig's back?

PROFILE THE IRISH FARMER: Farmers have seen their income grow by 46 per cent in two years, according to a report this week

PROFILE THE IRISH FARMER: Farmers have seen their income grow by 46 per cent in two years, according to a report this week. Is the Irish farmer an unlikely success story of recession-era Ireland, asks Seán Mac Connell,Agriculture Correspondent

AS THE ECONOMY collapses, banks are wound down and the dole queues lengthen, only one man in the country has a smile on his face.

He is the Irish Farmer, who for the past decade was told he was part of a twilight industry but now finds he is part of the recovery of the country.

In recent months the business of producing food and exporting it has been placed high on the Government’s agenda. The Harvest 2020 Report, published earlier this year, laid out a roadmap for the future in a comprehensive outline of how agriculture can grow over the next decade. It said Ireland’s food and beverage exports could grow by over 40 per cent, to €12 billion a year, and increase the value of primary production by farmers and fishermen by €1.5 billion. It estimated that the value added by processing the increased output could reach €3 billion and said the ending of milk quotas in 2015 represented an exceptional opportunity to increase milk output by an estimated 50 per cent. Suddenly, agriculture seemed a valuable sector that could drive exports, create jobs and once again become a vibrant industry.

READ MORE

The report was one of the main reasons why agriculture was left largely unscathed in the Budget this month, with all the major schemes left intact. So it is with a renewed sense of pride that the Irish Farmer will tell you he always knew the bubble would burst and he always viewed with scepticism the gait of the Celtic Tiger. He always knew, he will tell you, Ireland’s wealth and stability were rooted in the cow, the calf and the dunghill and not in IT, banks or foreign-owned factories.

Mind you, he has worked in a few of them over the years, part-time of course, and he did very well from the road- and house-building boom by either selling land or working on building sites.

The Irish Farmer – and his 114,000 brothers and sisters – owns 4.2 million hectares of the 6.9 million hectares that make up the landmass of the State. That land is divided into about 120,000 farms, giving an average size of about 32 hectares; at current values each hectare is worth more than €20,000. He is one of the few farmers in Europe who owns his own land. Others lease or rent it. He and his brethren own 5.8 million cattle, 3.1 million sheep and 1.6 million pigs – or did the last time they were counted by the CSO. He owns thousands of tractors, bulldozers, slurry spreaders and other heavy machinery, which came in very handy during the recent heavy snow.

His main problem is that he is no longer young. Only 7 per cent of farmers are under 35, 51 per cent are between 35 and 55, and 42 per cent are over 55. The typical Irish farmer is in his 50s; has a working wife, and children who have had third-level education; and runs a mixed farm. He goes to Mass; loves football, hurling and country and Irish music; was a Fine Gael supporter who had loaned his vote to Fianna Fáil for the past 15 years; and hates men wearing suits – they represent all kinds of trouble: unannounced farm inspections, health-and-safety officers, taxmen, men looking for the illegal use of farm diesel – and the Green Party.

He had a part-time job when the Celtic Tiger roared, but that is gone now, and less than half of his extended family now work off the farm. He had a couple of hard years when the money he made from farming dropped by well over 30 per cent, but this year he bounced back with a 46 per cent increase in earnings.

His greatest nightmare, however, is of a postal strike, because, as in previous years, most of this money came from Brussels via the “cheque in the post”. This year that cheque was worth just over €1.77 billion by way of the single farm payment, disadvantaged area payments and agri-environmental payment. The average farm income is just over €17,000, including those subsidies, but many of his smaller brothers and cousins, especially those in sheep and beef production, would get less than half of that. That crude average income masks a range, from a small-holding in the west, with the part-time farmer earning perhaps €6,000, mostly from subsidies, to a large commercial dairy farmer earning, say, €40,000.

Irish dairy farmers are among the best in the world. In our helpful grass-growing climate, production is cheaper and output equal to anywhere in the world. It is not generally known that our cereal farmers have the highest yields in the world, albeit on very small plantings of cereal crops, but they can produce at least a tonne an acre more than anywhere else on the planet.

Because of our grass-based feeding systems, the Irish Farmer produces some of the best and cheapest beef in the world. The same is true of the sheep farmer. He is backed up by some of the best agricultural scientists in the world at Teagasc, the agriculture- and food-development authority, and the Irish agrifood businesspeople sell about €7 billion worth of produce abroad every year. In the past year, after two bad ones, he has seen the price he receives for milk, beef, sheep and cereals increase steadily, and he is hoping for even better times in the years to come.

There are many things around the corner that could wipe the smile from the face of the Irish Farmer, however, not least the upcoming reform of the Common Agricultural Policy. Negotiations begin in earnest next year on the reform, and most commentators find it difficult to see how Ireland can hold on to the slice of the CAP funds we have become accustomed to. Since the last reform the number of EU member countries has nearly doubled, and many of the new states have large numbers of farmers to look after.

The Irish Farmer is also heavily endebted. The most recent figures for farm borrowing, from June this year, show total borrowing of €4.8 billion – a jump since March, when borrowing was €4.55 billion. This is a problem for the farmer who wants to expand his herd or buy more land, and he and his friends have been complaining a lot recently about access to credit.

The Irish Farmer is nowhere he has not been before in the cyclical business of farming, and he is certain he can circumvent the obstacles in his way. Perhaps his greatest assets are the security and independence that being a farmer gives him – and the knowledge that, no matter what happens in the world, he will be the last to starve.

Curriculum vitae

Who is he?The Irish Farmer – suddenly visible and needed again by the Irish people.

Why is he in the news?A recovery of world prices for food has helped his income jump by an estimated 46 per cent this year, after two terrible years.

Most appealing characteristicHis generosity to neighbours and strangers during any kind of crisis, such as the recent heavy snowfalls.

Least appealing characteristicThat he has already submitted a plan to Government to be paid for his generosity in the future.

Most likely to sayGod, things are very bad.

Least likely to sayGod, things are great.