Unfortunately, Irish beef farmers have little control over what happens outside the farm gate. In terms of price and supports, little can be controlled by the Irish farmer to positively affect their profit margins. However, what can be controlled is the performance of animals within the farm gate and recent work in Teagasc has shown that there is the potential to earn an extra €300 net margin per cow in the herd, by meeting key performance targets.

The work carried out by Teagasc was based on the performance of ‘average’ farms, obtained from national databases such as Teagasc, National Farm Survey and ICBF, which were then compared with results obtained on ‘high-performance’ commercial and research farms. A 40-hectare grass-based spring-calving, suckler calf-to-weanling farm was assumed.

Key performance indicators

Five key performance indicators were identified. Three reproductive indicators were calves weaned per cow per year, the age at first calving and the six week calving rate percentage. Two productive indicators were also identified; calf average daily gain (ADG) to weaning and kilos of concentrates fed to the cow and calf unit. The efficiency levels of the high performance farms was set as follows: six-week calving rate was 80%; calves per cow per year was 0.95; average age at first calving was 24 months; calf ADG to weaning was 1.25kg and kilos of concentrate per cow calf unit was 200kg. In essence, these are the figures that must be achieved to gain an extra €300/cow net margin. Table 1 outlines the results of the research.

Calves weaned per cow per year

Recent data from the ICBF indicates that only 85 out of every 100 cows in a herd produce a calf every year. This indicates that calf mortality and calving rate are limiting output on suckler beef farms.

Age at first calving

Statistics show that only 24% of beef heifers calve between 22 and 26 months of age in the country. However, recent research at Teagasc, Grange has shown that rearing heifers to calve at 36 months versus 24 months of age reduces net margin per hectare on suckler beef farms by 20% to 30%, reflecting the added costs of maintaining a non-producing group of animals within the herd for an extra year.

Six-week calving rate

High-performing herds are achieving six-week calving rates in excess of 80%. Increasing six-week calving rate ensures a higher proportion of calved cows are turned-out to grass at the beginning of the breeding and grazing season. Other benefits include increased labour savings due to a more uniform calf group.

Productive targets

A key component to increasing the live weight produced per suckler cow on the farm is maximising the ADG of the calf; however, this must be achieved cost-effectively, through grass and milk. A high level of concentrate supplementation significantly increases the input costs of the cow/calf unit. High utilisation of grass, both grazed and conserved, is an essential component of meeting the energy demands of the suckler cow/calf unit cost-effectively. This requires a combination of good grazing management and well managed grass conservation practices to ensure an adequate supply of grass and forage.

The study was carried out by Teagasc researchers Richard Lynch, Pearse Kelly, Aidan Murray, Edward O’Riordan and Mark McGee.