The earnings of full-time farmers rose by 5 per cent to just under €30,000 last year, new figures show.
The Teagasc national farm survey showed a total of 44,000 farms classified as full-time earned an average income of €29,000 in 2003, compared to €27,700 in 2002.
But on average, farmers across the country earned just over €15,000 last year, a rise of less than one per cent on 2002.
The survey showed a rise of just 0.9 per cent in average farm earnings with typical family farms making just €15,054 in 2003, compared to €14,917 in 2002.
Mr Liam Connolly, head of the Teagasc national farm survey, said the results showed enormous variation in farm incomes with two obvious extremes.
"The first group are small, part-time farms engaged in extensive beef and sheep production, yielding low profit margins and highly dependent on direct payments and off-farm employment," he said.
"The second group are the more dynamic full-time farms, which represent the commercial or viable sector of Irish agriculture and are mainly involved in dairy and tillage farming."
Just under 10 per cent of farms, a total of 10,300, had a farm income of more than €40,000, three quarters of which were involved in dairy farming.
Mr Connolly said almost 40 per cent of farms in 2003 earned an average income of less than €6,500 and 86 per cent of these were part-time, beef and sheep farms with a second income.
He added that full-time farms accounted for just under 40 per cent of all farms and had an average farm income of €29,000.
This year's survey also showed the contribution of women to labour on the farm for the first time, and on average, women contribute 13 per cent to farm labour, ranging from 5 per cent on tillage farms to 14 per cent on dairy farms.
Dairy farming made the highest returns, with an average income of €30,100, a rise of 7 per cent.
Income from tillage farming averaged €26,282, a 22 per cent increase. Earnings from sheep farming rose by 4 per cent, to an average of €12,900.
On half of all farms, the farmer and/or spouse had an off-farm job, while on nearly 80 per cent of farms the farmer and/or the spouse had a second income of some sort. Just 20 per cent of the country's farms depend solely on farming for their income.
The Teagasc survey found that direct payments in the form of EU subsidies increased by 0.3 per cent in 2003 to an average of €13,500 per farm.
It also showed market returns on beef and sheep did not cover production costs with subsidies as percentage of incomes as high as 121 per cent of sheep farm earnings and 178 per cent for beef farms.
Meanwhile, the ICMSA said it has received confirmation that compensation for the loss in calf and
weanling prices can be addressed under the Single Farm Payment National Reserve currently being finalised. The body called on the Government and the Minister for Agriculture to act speedily on the issue following a meeting with EU Commisison officials today.
ICMSA president Mr Pat O'Rourke and general secretary Mr Ciaran Dolan said they were informed that Ireland could indeed allocate single farm payments from the National Reserve to calf and weanling producers, who they said are losing up to €175 for June 2004-born calves compared to May-born calves.
"The Commission is quite clear. The relevant EU Council regulations provide a broad legal framework for Ireland to implement ICMSA's proposals to address the shortfall suffered by calf and weanling producers," Mr O'Rourke said.
"I am quite satisfied that the way is now open for the minister to act and provide additional payments to those farmers from the reserve."
Additional reporting PA