While falling suckler cow numbers and a sharp drop in the cattle kill are being viewed with concern by processors, suppliers of inputs and beef finishers, suckler farmers have not been complaining.
The surge in beef prices which has accompanied a sharp reduction in beef cattle numbers globally has put a rocket under suckler farmer incomes in Ireland and elsewhere.
One man who is reaping the benefits of stronger beef prices is Teagasc Signpost farmer John Barry from Newtown outside Nenagh, Co Tipperary.
“Last year was unbelievable, everything I sold was up €1,000 on the year before. I’m in different systems; I’ve weanlings and I’ve stores, and I’m doing calf to beef as well, but everything was up €1,000 from 2024 to 2025,” Barry said.
As a consequence, the farm’s financial returns for 2025 were in the realm normally associated with dairy farmers.
“I had a net margin for the year which was close to €1,400/ha,” he said.
Barry farms 183ac of which 120ac is on one block.
While some people have suggested to him over the years that he should be milking cows on the place, he had no interest in making the jump.
This refusal to countenance a switch to milk is ironic as he works five mornings a week for a local dairy farmer.
On his own farm, the Tipperary-man carries 90 suckler cows, most of which are Limousin and Simmental, as well as few Belgian Blues. The cows are a mix of autumn and spring calvers.
Barry’s farming system means that he sells animals to the three key cohorts of buyers in the trade; the shippers, finishers, and factories.
“I’d be selling the best of the bulls as weanlings to the shippers, and then any of the plain ones I keep for the grass and I sell as store bullocks and heifers. And then I’m doing the calf to beef as well,” he outlined.
With the vast majority of Barry’s breeding herd classed as four- and five-star cows – and AI used on all but the last of the stragglers – around half of the bull weanlings are shipped.
The aim with the bullocks and heifers sold as stores, and with the calf-to-beef cattle – which are generally finished at 20-22 months – is to maximise grass and silage and keep concentrate feed to a minimum.
“I have a good run of ground here and I’d be able to grass them that bit cheaper than having to put meal into them or whatever.”
Barry is adamant that suckler prices need to be as high as they are at the moment, but he admitted to concerns around the margins for beef finishers.
“I sold Charolais bullocks in Roscrea there in September and they all made over €3,000. I’d be worried about the man who bought them.
“With the prices the way they are you’d be hoping there will be buyers there again this year. You need the next man to make a few quid out of them as well,” he said.
“The price we were getting last year, that’s where we should be; that’s where we need to be to be sustainable in suckling,” Barry insisted.
You’d want the exporting to stay going. The live exporting of calves and weanlings is fierce important for me and for all suckler farmers
The hike in fertiliser and contractor charges was likely to erode a share of the income increases enjoyed in 2025, he maintained.
Looking to the future, Barry is optimistic on both suckler incomes and suckler numbers. But maintaining the live export trade was, is and will be essential, he said.
“You’d want the exporting to stay going. The live exporting of calves and weanlings is fierce important for me and for all suckler farmers,” Barry pointed out.
“The more animals the shippers can get out of the country the better,” he claimed.
In relation to suckler numbers, Barry believes that the slide of recent years has stalled or stopped.
“I can’t see numbers dropping too much more,” he maintained. “Around here now, I’d say who was going to get out has got out. I’d say those that are left are going to stay at it,” Barry pointed out. The lift in prices over the last 18 months may even be tempting some younger farmers into sucklers.
“I see at those special sales, there’s lots of young lads looking to get back in,” Barry said.
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