The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) has published its first, provisional, estimate for farm income in 2024.
Provisional figures indicate that the total income from farming (TIFF) in Northern Ireland increased by 62.5% from £471 million (€552 million) in 2023, to £766 million (€898 million) in 2024.
The Minister for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, Andrew Muir welcomed the figures.
He said: “I welcome the total income from farming figure increase between 2023 and 2024. This increase is due to improved market prices for milk, beef and lamb combined with some reduction in feed and fertiliser prices for the 2024 year.
“Farm level income estimates also show that increases are expected for each of the individual farm types.
“However, I appreciate that markets have been particularly volatile over the last five years and changes in farm incomes between years are reflective of this,” the minister added.
TIFF represents the return on a farmers own labour, management input, and own capital invested for all those with an entrepreneurial involvement in farming. It represents farm income measured at the sector level.
The total gross output for agriculture in Northern Ireland was 8% higher at £3.19 billion (€3.7 billion) in 2024.
There was a 9% increase in the value of output from the livestock sector, while field crops increased by 3% and horticulture increased by 10%.
DAERA said that the figures are for the calendar year, and therefore represent the outturn across two harvest years.
Farm incomes
According to DAERA, dairy farming remains the largest contributor to the total value of the gross output, at £1.1 billion (€1.2 billion) in 2024.
This represents a 21% increase between 2023 and 2024.
The annual average farm-gate milk price increased by 17% to 41.0 pence per litre, while the volume of raw milk produced in Northern Ireland increased by 4% to 2.6 billion litres.
DAERA also revealed, that the output value of cattle was 4% higher, at £658 million (€771 million) in 2024.
Meanwhile, the total number of animals slaughtered increased by 8.3% in 2024, whereas the average carcase weights for clean and cull animals were both 0.3% lower.
These changes resulted in the volume of meat produced being 8.2% higher in 2024.
The average producer price for finished clean cattle was £4.78 (€5.61) per kg in 2024, while the average producer price for cull animals was £3.17 (€3.72) per kg.
For sheep farmers, the value of output from sheep increased by 8% to £123 million (€144 million).
According to DAERA, the total number of sheep slaughtered decreased by 9% in 2024, while the average carcass weight increased by 1% to 22kg.
In the poultry sector, the value of output decreased by 7% to £356 million (€417 million) in 2024, while the egg sector increased by 16% to £264 million (€309 million).
The value of the pig sector decreased by 1% to £295 million (€345 million).
Finally, DAERA outlined that the output value for field crops increased by 3% in 2024 to £89 million (€104 million).
