Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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350. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of full-time and part-time farmers in counties Longford and Westmeath in the years 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022. [36639/22]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The two main sources of statistics on farmers in Ireland are the Central Statistics Office (CSO) Agricultural Census and the Teagasc National Farm Survey. However, while neither source has details of full-time and part -time farmers by county, they do provide information on related issues.

According to the CSO Agricultural Censuscarried out in 2020, with detailed results issued in May 2022, in 2020 there were 2,515 farm holdings in Longford and 3,437 farm holdings in Westmeath. The median age of the farm holders in both these counties was 58 years with 11.6% of farm holders in Westmeath and 12.5% of farm holders in Longford were female.

The median farm size in Longford is 21.7 hectares, while it is 27.7 hectares in Westmeath, with the mean size 28.3 hectares and 38.1 hectares respectively.

Close to 79% or 1,976 of the farms in Longford are specialist beef production farms, while 68% or 2,344 are in this category in Westmeath. The second largest category of farms in Longford at 7% or 174 farms are mixed field crops while the second largest category in Westmeath is specialist dairying at close to 8% or 267 farms.

The CSO census data gives a breakdown of the significance of farm work, not by county but by region. Longford and Westmeath are in the Midlands region along with Laois and Offaly. These four counties have a total of 12,041 farm holders. In these four counties 52% or 6,276 farm holders consider farm work as their sole occupation, 22% or 2,688 consider it as a major occupation and 26% or 3,077 consider farm work as subsidiary.

According to the preliminary Teagasc National Farm Survey 2021released in June the proportion of farm households nationally where either the farmer or the spouse was employed off-farm increased marginally in 2021 to 54%. The proportion of farm holders employed off-farm remained relatively stable at 34%.

The off-farm employment situation differs by farm system according to Teagasc, with Cattle Rearing farmers most likely to work off-farm. The proportion was 44% in 2021, a 3% increase from 2020. The equivalent figure on Cattle Other farms was 38%, unchanged year-on-year. A lower proportion of Sheep farmers worked off-farm in 2021, at 36%, an increase of 2% year-on year. The proportion of Tillage farmers employed off farm remained relatively stable, at 35% and just 12% of Dairy farmers work off-farm.