The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) has announced that the production cost of a litre milk has risen by 11.25c. This was revealed by IFA senior policy executive, Karol Kissane, who was speaking at the organisation’s milk price analysis webinar. The webinar outlined that input costs on farms have drastically increased over the last number of months.
At the webinar it was heard that farmers have experienced a 230% increase in fertiliser costs, an 80% increase in diesel, and a 50% increase in electricity costs. Kissane stated that the hikes were the result of the increased cost of gas. “If we look at our milk processors and the drying of milk, there is so much now driven by gas that any increase really comes home to roost to us at farm level,” he said. Kissane claims that the price of gas in Europe increased by 580% in the last year.
Meanwhile, Kissane completed an analysis of a typical Irish dairy farm and how increased input costs will affect the farm in 2022. He based his analysis on spring-calving, 89-cow herd supplying 500,000L of milk. This farm spreads 35t of chemical fertiliser, feeds 100t of concentrates, harvests 100ac of silage, and uses 4,500L of diesel. The total increase for this farm was 11.24c/L, on every litre of milk produced, or €56,192,” Kissane explained.
In the same breath he says that, “Oil has experienced a 70% increase in the same period, which doesn’t look as bad as gas – but we are all well aware of it when we go to the pumps. These increases are driving all our inputs up, because there is gas and oil in just about everything.”