Imagine if someone told you in the morning you had to drive from Galway to Dublin, but you could only drive your car up to fourth gear. It has six gears but you can’t use the last two.
I’d imagine it would get very frustrating. There would be a lot of revving and fuel efficiency would go out the window. Insisting on steers when you have the genetics or the last two gears to do bulls is a bit like this. Last week’s open day on the Newford Farm has been a hot topic of conversation up and down the country.
Farmers are extremely frustrated and disappointed that a farm, which is one of the best-managed in the country, fails to generate a positive bottom line. So what are the options for Newford to turn things around?
Reduce costs: difficult and weather-related.Weanling system: could increase cow numbers. Suits the cow and terminal bull; low output and low margin.Store system: market dependent, control taken away, capitalises on grass.Bull beef: increase cow numbers, increase output, industry demand?For the past 10 years, under 16-month bull systems have been the standout performer in terms of financial performance on farms participating in the Teagasc/Irish Farmers Journal BETTER farm beef challenge.
Table 1 outlines the financial performance of the BETTER farm participants in 2016 and 2017. The standout performers in both years have been the under 16-month bull producers outperforming the steer finishing system by €355/ha net margin in 2016 and €371/ha net margin in 2017.
If this is multiplied by the average farm size in the programme, which is 52.1 ha, that’s an €18,495 difference in 2016 and a €19,329 benefit to the bull system in 2017. Remember, this is net margin taking out all fixed costs so it leads to real gains in your back pocket.
Where a farm is technically good, ie good grassland management, the right genetics, good weight gains and a functional cow weaning a heavy calf every year, it has to be looked at.
For many farmers who attended Newford last week, it’s the final piece of the jigsaw that is missing.
Our beef industry and, in particular, some processors, are apprehensive about bulls but with margins becoming so tight it has come to the point where we cannot ignore it
The industry maintains that our image is based around grass-based steer and heifer production but is unwilling to pay the required breakeven price to run this system. One could argue that with this week’s cut in prices they are actually undermining the grass-based system they are insisting on.
Newford bull system
If we take a look at the bull option on the Newford Herd, there are obvious efficiency gains through bulls gaining 1.4kg/day lifetime gain v a steer gaining 1kg/day.
There are, however, increased costs so if we compare a steer slaughtered at 22 months at an R- 340kg carcase to an under 16-month bull slaughtered at a U- 400kg carcase. That’s a €294 increase in terms of increased weight and grading.
There are currently 900kg of concentrates being fed to the steers in Newford so if we increase this by 600kg to 1.5t, that’s a net gain of €150/animal.
When reduced silage feeding and increased fixed costs are taken into account, there is a €6,500 increase from leaving males entire.
The big gain comes from increasing cow numbers. Because steers are not grazing for the second season, cow numbers could increase by 20 cows replacing the grazing steers. This would increase the Newford bottom line by a further €7,000 to €9,000. So the increased profit potential of going down the under 16-month bull route in Newford is between €13,000 and €15,000 on an annual basis.
Imagine if someone told you in the morning you had to drive from Galway to Dublin, but you could only drive your car up to fourth gear. It has six gears but you can’t use the last two.
I’d imagine it would get very frustrating. There would be a lot of revving and fuel efficiency would go out the window. Insisting on steers when you have the genetics or the last two gears to do bulls is a bit like this. Last week’s open day on the Newford Farm has been a hot topic of conversation up and down the country.
Farmers are extremely frustrated and disappointed that a farm, which is one of the best-managed in the country, fails to generate a positive bottom line. So what are the options for Newford to turn things around?
Reduce costs: difficult and weather-related.Weanling system: could increase cow numbers. Suits the cow and terminal bull; low output and low margin.Store system: market dependent, control taken away, capitalises on grass.Bull beef: increase cow numbers, increase output, industry demand?For the past 10 years, under 16-month bull systems have been the standout performer in terms of financial performance on farms participating in the Teagasc/Irish Farmers Journal BETTER farm beef challenge.
Table 1 outlines the financial performance of the BETTER farm participants in 2016 and 2017. The standout performers in both years have been the under 16-month bull producers outperforming the steer finishing system by €355/ha net margin in 2016 and €371/ha net margin in 2017.
If this is multiplied by the average farm size in the programme, which is 52.1 ha, that’s an €18,495 difference in 2016 and a €19,329 benefit to the bull system in 2017. Remember, this is net margin taking out all fixed costs so it leads to real gains in your back pocket.
Where a farm is technically good, ie good grassland management, the right genetics, good weight gains and a functional cow weaning a heavy calf every year, it has to be looked at.
For many farmers who attended Newford last week, it’s the final piece of the jigsaw that is missing.
Our beef industry and, in particular, some processors, are apprehensive about bulls but with margins becoming so tight it has come to the point where we cannot ignore it
The industry maintains that our image is based around grass-based steer and heifer production but is unwilling to pay the required breakeven price to run this system. One could argue that with this week’s cut in prices they are actually undermining the grass-based system they are insisting on.
Newford bull system
If we take a look at the bull option on the Newford Herd, there are obvious efficiency gains through bulls gaining 1.4kg/day lifetime gain v a steer gaining 1kg/day.
There are, however, increased costs so if we compare a steer slaughtered at 22 months at an R- 340kg carcase to an under 16-month bull slaughtered at a U- 400kg carcase. That’s a €294 increase in terms of increased weight and grading.
There are currently 900kg of concentrates being fed to the steers in Newford so if we increase this by 600kg to 1.5t, that’s a net gain of €150/animal.
When reduced silage feeding and increased fixed costs are taken into account, there is a €6,500 increase from leaving males entire.
The big gain comes from increasing cow numbers. Because steers are not grazing for the second season, cow numbers could increase by 20 cows replacing the grazing steers. This would increase the Newford bottom line by a further €7,000 to €9,000. So the increased profit potential of going down the under 16-month bull route in Newford is between €13,000 and €15,000 on an annual basis.
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