Mr. Sean Farrell:

I will place a caveat on my response as well. Leaving efficiencies aside, there can be numerous income sources other than from one particular enterprise on each farm. There are also different cost bases that are not impacted on by efficiencies. For example, rented land plays a significant role and basic payments vary considerably from one farm to the next. We take all of these factors into consideration in addition to the efficiencies. Each cow and production level is different. As a general rule of thumb, though, once one exceeds a debt level of on average €4,000 per cow or 80 cent per litre of production, our experience is that efficiency levels must be high for that to be a sustainable level of debt.