Suckler beef is the backbone of the Irish beef industry. Just over one million calves were born in Ireland to suckler beef dams in 2016. It is a vital component in rural communities in marginal areas, especially in the west of the country.

Profitability is inherently low with national farm survey data analysis from 2016 finding that the average suckler farm generates a net margin of -€52/ha, meaning these farms depend completely on support payments to stay in existence.

Improvement

Teagasc has shown that there is scope for improvement with the top third of suckler farms in the Teagasc e-profit monitor analysis returning a net margin of €258/ha excluding any support payments. Stand one at BEEF 2018 took a look at what the difference is between the NFS farms and the e-profit monitor farms.

Factors underpinning profitability

Grass utilisation (grazed and conserved)

Feed costs make up 75% of total variable costs on the average suckler beef farm. Grazed grass is the cheapest feed, followed by grass silage with concentrates being the most expensive. Grass growth rates and utilisation are vital in achieving a high level of profitability on a suckler beef farm.

Individual animal performance

Individual animal performance needs to be high to ensure maximum profitability. Having a cow that is fit to rear a heavy weanling, coupled with good herd fertility and low mortality, is also very important.

Stocking rate

Stocking rate on drystock farms is inherently low and this has a direct effect on profitability.

There is huge scope to increase stocking rate, output and, in turn, profitability on many drystock farms. It is important that any increase in stocking rate is coupled with an increase in grass utilisation. Correcting soil fertility and investing in grazing infrastructure like fencing and roadways is integral to utilising more grass.

Key performance indicators

Table 1 outlines five key performance indicators and how achieving these targets can increase the net margin per cow in your herd. This analysis was based on a 40ha model farm stocked at 2.28 LU/ha or 170kg/N/ha. The high-performance data was taken from high-performing research and commercial farms while the national average data was taken from National Farm Survey Data and ICBF data.

Calves per cow per year had the largest economic impact on the herd – a €87/cow increase in net margin when calves weaned per cow went from 0.85 - 0.95.

There is increasing focus on the carbon footprint of beef and reducing environmental impacts such as greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Teagasc research has demonstrated a 0.8% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions per kilo of beef produced for every % increase in the calves per cow per year figure.

Achieving good herd fertility and low mortality are central to a high calf per cow figure. Calving heifers at 24 months as opposed to 32 months also delivered a €50 net margin per cow. Successfully calving heifers at two years of age requires a higher level of management but the financial reward is there. Having heifers reaching puberty and cycling before the breeding season begins is important.

Nutrition

Correct nutrition will have an effect on this and making sure heifers reach weight targets up to 24 months and beyond. Calf daily gain to weaning also had a major effect on net margin per cow. Increasing average daily gains for calves to weaning from 1.05kg to 1.25kg increased the net margin per cow by €86. One of the main drivers of calf weaning weight is milk yield in the cow, so having a breeding programme that focuses on maternal traits for replacements makes sense. Quality grass and appropriate use of concentrates will also help to drive weight gain.

Comment

The Teagasc figures presented on stand one at the open day are not new. This research has been presented at open days both in Grange and on farms for the past number of years. They form the basics of profitable beef production. Some of the targets such as calf weight gain and calves per cow per year weaned are questionable in terms of being realistically attainable. Achieving an average daily gain of 1.25kg/day up to weaning is a very high target. Bull calves would need to gain 1.35kg/day with heifer calves gaining 1.15kg/day.

Figures from the Teagasc research/demonstration Derrypatrick herd show that male calves gained 1.21kg/day to weaning and heifer calves gained 1.11kg/day up to weaning. The analysis was based on a 40ha farm stocked at 2.28LU/ha, a large, full-time unit. With many of our beef farms operating at a lower stocking rate and a much lower average cow number,should the same analysis be looked at for a 20ha farm stocked at 1.6LU/ha to see the effect that these key performance indicators have on the average farmer? If this analysis was made more relevant to the average producer, maybe the average producer would be able to connect to it better and apply the research at farm level.

Given that the majority of the suckler cow herd is located towards the west and confined more and more to marginal land as better quality land moves to other more profitable enterprises, is it right to base the research on a stocking rate of 2.28LU/ha? Another question is why the technology is not being applied at farm level. As an industry, we have grappled with two-year-old calving for the past couple of decades and have made no major gains.

Recent soil analysis indicates that 90% of soil samples have sub-optimal fertility so high grass utilisation rates are not possible. At some point, we need to ask the question as to how this information is being transferred to farmers. Is our agricultural education system working where these young people exposed to this technology still fail to apply it at farm level? Could incentives for low-carbon footprint beef be introduced to encourage the application of this technology? Is more accountability needed where, for example, a farmer does not meet efficiency targets set out as part of a programme such as the Knowledge Transfer programme. We have seen a positive move in some of these figures for farmers participating in BDGP, which is encouraging albeit on a lower than anticipated number of farms that signed up, but we need to see more efficiency gains if the suckler sector is to survive.