Beef finishers will struggle to turn a margin if the price of weanlings at marts remains as it is at present according to Teagasc’s Paul Crossan, who was speaking today (Tuesday) at the Teagasc National Beef Conference held in Athlone.

Crossan was replying to a question from the floor who asked were farm profits sustainable at the current price of weanlings.

“I don’t think too many people have done their budgets based on the prices being paid at the moment,” said Crossan. “If we put any price that’s being paid at the moment into our guidelines, the expected beef price is certainly on anything I am expecting so unless there is market intelligence out there that we don’t have, I think a lot of those systems will struggle to turn a margin,” added Crossan.

Autumn calving

When asked about the viability of autumn calving suckler systems, Crossan said they have a role to play, particularly in an export type system where a better quality animal available for sale is needed earlier in the season. However, he noted that certainly less than 10% of Irish weanlings go for live export.

He added that the costs of production in an autumn calving system can be difficult to justify given the typical beef prices and weanling prices that are available at sale. “It’s difficult to square that circle in the sense that the costs incurred are not typically covered by the additional output that’s generated,” said Crossan.

Crossan noted that in some cases, labour is used as a reason for autumn calving, particularly is a farmer has big herd and they want to calve half in the spring and half in the autumn. However, he said that in Teagasc’s view labour is actually reduced when you can efficiently and compactly calve in the spring.

And for farmers where facilities are a challenge, Crossan said it might be more economical to focus on improving facilities and calve more in the spring than to use facilities as reason for split calving.

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