The importance of direct coupled supports was highlighted at Wednesday’s open day on Tullamore Farm.

The 200ac beef and sheep farm which was set up in 2017 by the Irish Farmers Journal made a loss of €71,938 in 2018 as a result of increased costs due to storm Emma and drought conditions during the summer months.

“It was a really tough 2018 here on the farm. This was our first year of sales and dealing with the increased costs put huge pressure on the business from both a labour and financial point of view.

"Weather conditions in 2018 led to an extra €35,000 being spent on the farm in variable costs.

"This does not take account of other indirect costs such as reduced liveweight gain, delayed turnout, higher mortality figures and higher labour costs,” beef editor Adam Woods said.

One of the key messages to come from the open day was that even a suckler-beef enterprise operated at the highest level of technical efficiency requires a coupled direct payment to deliver economic sustainability.

Tullamore Farm has no Basic Payment but does receive livestock-related supports such as ANC, BDGP and ewe payments.

Land costs were €29,400 for 2018, labour costs were €45,146 and bank interest totalled €21,350.