There is a growing confidence among farmers despite major challenges, according to Ifac's 2026 Irish Farm Report.
It shows that 61% of farmers feel positive about their prospects - which is up on previous years.
However the level of positivity does differ significantly across different farm sectors.
"2025 was a strong year for the livestock sectors," said Philip O'Connor, head of farm support at Ifac. "The outrider in those figures though was the tillage sector... confidence was massively down in the tillage sector compared to the beef, sheep and dairy".
"But as I say, the beef, sheep, dairy are the main biggest sector so overall, that got up the positivity," he added.
Despite the relative positivity, many farmers are also feeling significant levels of frustration at the challenges they face.
The survey found that issues around rules, regulations and bureaucracy was the most common challenge, with 48% of farmers citing it as a top concern.
This is down on the 60% who cited this problem in 2025, however Mr O'Connor said this was largely due to the growing challenges coming from other places.
"Other items got a little bigger for them," he said. "When the survey went out just before Christmas, the milk price was starting to drop - inflation is still there, we had auto enrollment coming in as a factor as well," he said.
"And even though the nitrates has been solved, it hasn't gone away," he added.
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The survey also found no improvement in the level of financial planning among farmers, with 70% of respondents saying they do not prepare an annual budget.
Mr O'Connor said that, given the level of volatility in both input and output prices, it was now more important than ever that farmers make a budget plan.
"If you looked at milk prices over the last four years, they've been up, they've been down, they've been swinging," he said. "Beef prices have gone to a record high in the last year, but there's been a long number of tough years for beef farmers,tillage farmer prices are on the floor, we've had hyperinflation, we've had Covid and Brexit"
"So volatility is very much the name of the day in the farming sector and having good financials around that [helps] weather those storms," he added.
Meanwhile two out of five farmers say they do not have a formal succession plan in place at present.
In some cases the farmers said they had identified a successor but had not yet formalised the agreement - however one in five said they simply had not identified any successor for their business.
"When you looked at the dairy sector, for example, it was lifestyle not appealing to the next generation," said Mr O'Connor. "The beef farmers, despite beef prices being at a record high, still say business viability is an issue.
"Farmers are looking more long-term at it because it's a huge decision to be made in the family - and it's not a quick decision that farmers need to make," he added.
