On Tuesday, Teagasc held a very successful open day on its beef research farm in Grange, Co Meath. In this column and within the pages of the Irish Farmers Journal, I have in the past been critical of the organisation for not giving adequate technical direction to the beef and suckler sector. There is no doubt that serious effort has been made in recent years to change direction and this should be acknowledged.

The 600-acre Grange facility is world-leading and perhaps with the exception of the US, is replicated nowhere else in the world. Teagasc must therefore ensure that the facility is exploited to its full potential for the betterment of the Irish beef sector. We are certainly seeing it move in this direction.

From the first to the last stand, those attending were taken through the key profit drivers of a range of beef production systems step by step. While the excellent practical demonstrations and various technical presentations left the key messages clear, the task of simply absorbing such a volume of information over the course of one event should be kept in mind.

Nevertheless, despite the volume of data, the overarching message from Teagasc was that efficient suckler beef production systems can be profitable. Despite National Farm Survey data showing that the average suckler herd running 23 cows on 40 hectares is losing €150 per cow, Teagasc sees potential to drive this figure to a positive net margin of €400 per cow at a stocking rate of 2.22 livestock units (LU) per hectare.

The €550 per cow swing is due to increased output combined with improved technical efficiency. This was for a relatively highly stocked, self-contained suckler system where progeny were brought through to beef and the figures did not include land or labour charges.

I was surprised to see the Teagasc figures showing that even a typical farm stocked at 1.32LU/ha operating at a high level of technical efficiency still had the capacity to return a net margin of €300 per cow.

Of course, there are no shortages of places where holes can be picked in these figures. The fact that land and labour are not included as a cost is an obvious starting point. Furthermore, how relevant are the figures when the predominant production model is suckler-to-weanling and weanling-to-beef?

While all these are valid points, they should not be used to hide the fact that improved technical efficiency does have the capacity to significantly improve profitability, even where the capacity to drive output from an increased stocking rate is limited. The challenge for individual farmers is to establish how much of the €550 swing they can harvest inside the farm gate.

The opportunity to improve technical efficiency should not be seen as distracting from the need to ensure that processors deliver a beef price that is competitive in the marketplace.

While the swing in profitability delivered from technical efficiency is impressive, we should not lose sight of the fact that a 40ha farm operating a 50-cow suckler-to-beef system and running over 150 head of cattle at maximum efficiency is delivering a net margin of just €15,000 to €20,000 per annum. Clearly, the capacity for reinvestment and the ability to absorb shocks to the system – either in relation to beef price, weather or herd health – are limited even on the top-performing farms.

In many ways, this week’s event should serve as a launch pad for an ongoing series of more regular events at Teagasc Grange, each focusing specifically on one key performance area, such as grassland management, herd health, breeding, nutrition and financial management. Grange is simply too valuable a facility for it to hold just one large open day every two years. Getting more farmers in front of researchers will help Teagasc tackle what remains and underlying issue: the direction of research and the level of innovative farmer-focused research coming on stream.

Farmers cannot be expected to come back to Grange in two years’ time to hear the same message presented slightly differently. The nature of research is such that Teagasc should in effect know the message that it will be presenting at BEEF 2018.

The 2016 event was an excellent display of existing technologies, but 2018 should be about the new research-driven technologies that have been developed and are going to further drive profitability on Irish farms.