National Farm Survey 2023 - Sheep Enterprise Factsheet
The National Farm Survey 2023 Sheep Enterprise Factsheet provides an analysis of sheep enterprises across Ireland, focusing on financial performance, technical variations, and key trends affecting sheep farming.
Analysis of Financial Performance
Following a decline in sheep margins in 2022, a further decline occurred in 2023, to bring net margins back to the level earned in 2020, which was a low margin year. Despite an 8% increase in coupled payments, lower output volume led to the decline in the value of gross output. Gross output in 2023, at €1,360 per hectare, was 9% lower than in 2022. Concentrate feed expenditure increased marginally, by 1%, with pasture and forage and other direct costs increasing by 7% and 20% respectively, resulting in an increase in total direct costs of 8%, to €675 per hectare in 2023. Overhead costs in 2023 were 20% lower, at €583 per hectare on average. Total production costs decreased by 7% year on year, to €1,258 per hectare. Overall, gross margin declined by 22% in 2023, to €685 per hectare on average, while net margin in 2023 declined substantially, to €103 per hectare, a 29% decline on 2022.
Table 1: Average gross margin and net margin per hectare in 2022 and 2023: Mid-Season Lamb
| 2022€ per hectare | 2023€ per hectare | 2023/2022% change | ||
| Coupled payments | 47 | 51 | +8 | |
| Gross Output | 1,499 | 1,360 | -9 | |
| Concentrate Costs | 265 | 268 | +1 | |
| Pasture and Forage Costs | 196 | 209 | +7 | |
| Other Direct Costs | 165 | 198 | +20 | |
| Total Direct Costs | 625 | 675 | +8 | |
| Gross Margin | 874 | 685 | -22 | |
| Energy and Fuel | 177 | 128 | -28 | |
| Other Fixed Costs | 553 | 454 | -18 | |
| Total Fixed Costs | 730 | 583 | -20 | |
| Total Costs | 1,355 | 1,258 | -7 | |
| Net Margin | 144 | 103 | -29 |
Variation in Financial Performance
The top one-third of farms generated over two and a half times more output value than the lowest-performing farms. Superior stocking rates and weaning rates contributed to gross margins over thirteen times higher for the top farms compared to the bottom ones. Concentrate feed costs also varied, with the bottom farms incurring the highest costs per hectare.
While 80% of farms earned a gross margin above €500 per hectare in 2021, this figure dropped to 54% in 2023 due to lower output. The proportion of farms with a gross margin of less than €300 rose from 16% in 2022 to 33% in 2023.
Variation in Technical Performance
Stocking rate in 2023 declined by 4%, bringing it back to the lowest level for well over a decade, but it still remains close to 7 ewes per hectare. The weaning rate in 2023 declined by 5% on the 2022 level. In 2023 technical performance is down on previous years. This follows successive improvements in technical performance in 2021 and 2022, which was reflected in an increase in carcass output per hectare, albeit a small increase. This improvement has been eroded in 2023, with lamb carcass (kg per hectare) declining by 8%.
The percentage of farms achieving key targets in Teagasc’s 2027 Sheep Road Map also decreased. Fewer farms reported lamb mortality rates of 8% or less, 61% in 2023 compared to 71% in 2022, and the percentage of farms with a weaning rate above 1.55 lambs per ewe also dropped, from 26% in 2022 to 21% in 2023. However, environmental progress was seen, with more farms adopting protected urea and Low Emissions Slurry Spreading (LESS) techniques in 2023, up from 27% in 2022 to 48% in 2023.
Flock Size
Flocks of less than 100 ewes produced almost two thirds of the lambs (62%) across farms in 2023. The gradual shift towards larger flock sizes (100-150 ewes) observed in the last decade now seems to be in reverse (almost 31% of flocks were in the 100 to 150 ewes category in 2019). The percentage of lambs produced by the 100 to 150 ewe flock size category consequently also decreased year on year to 16% in 2023 (down from 28% in 2020, 24% in 2021 and 23% in 2022 years). Just 19% of flocks had more than 150 ewes in 2023, with these flocks producing 23% of lamb, equivalent to 2021 year for this >150 ewe category.