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End of year accounts review

When IFAC, who do my farm accounts, rang and said they wanted to do their usual end-of-year review of my farm, I feared the worst.

I was conscious that 2014 had been a very good weather year, but prices for my two main products, grain and beef, were both seriously down on the year before. I had made a number of changes – some forced on me and some I made voluntarily.

The first major change was that the 500kg bull carcase was consigned to history. I think all of us as farmers want to chase output and there is something very satisfying in achieving high output, but that comes at a cost.

I am not sure of the conversion efficiency of a bull going from a potential carcase weight of 420kg to 500kg, but I would have thought it costs more to put on the 1kg of carcase going from 499kg to 500kg than from 419kg to 420kg. As a result, our feed bill is down as our carcase weights dropped.

We were significantly helped by doing some zero grazing and also getting better performance at grass, especially from the newly reseeded ground.

We also grew more of our own feed in the form of grass silage and beans for protein, but I had less cereals as all the wheat made seed quality.

Extra grass and grazing also reduced our diesel bill and fixing the water leaks meant that our ESB bill was also down because of less pressure on our submersible pump.

The advice to register for VAT, given the range of contractors, veterinary and plant protection products that are liable for VAT, has proven to be correct. The balance from registering is definitely in my favour.

On the tillage side, yields were uniformly good, but the price declines, especially in oilseed rape, all cut into margins. Some money was saved in the experimental direct drilling, but the final result of whether we extend that practise won’t be clear until harvest.

So the final result? There is still a total reliance on the SFP for farm income in our system. We have coped with the first year’s reduction, but there are five more years of reductions to come. Can we continue to run faster to stand still? We will give it a go, but anyone who says the compensation element of the SFP is irrelevant in today’s world is talking nonsense.

Meanwhile, my real thanks to the “southern farmer” who wrote a detailed note on how to cope with crows.