Sheep sector faces uncertain 2023

Concern as factory prices remain poor

SHEEP farmers in Galway and further afield are being hit with weakening factory payments as prices for lambs continue to sink towards the €6/kg threshold.

Farmers are already concerned for the upcoming spring trade and coupled with the factory prices being paid to them and high input costs, some are of the belief that the sheep sector is already in crisis.

The forecast for sheep farming for 2023 is not healthy. A further 10 per cent increase on feed prices is expected, and experts do not believe fertiliser prices will come back, having shot up by a mammoth 195 per cent since 2021.

“Input costs on sheep farms has increased in the past 12 months by over 40 per cent and sheep farmers do not have the capacity to absorb this level of cost increase which has eroded the income levels in an extremely vulnerable sector,” said Galway IFA Chairman Stephen Canavan…

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