Two weeks ago, we called out Teagasc for being involved in an ABP-led dairy beef demonstration open day with no financial figures displayed to farmers. Thankfully, this week, ahead of a dairy-beef conference next week, Teagasc has published for the first time national farm survey financial figures for dairy-beef.

The results are displayed per hectare and essentially they show for a 40ha dairy-beef farm, total annual gross sales were €82,000 in 2023 and total costs were €75,000. So after a year’s work, the farmer was left with €7,000 before any value is put on the farmer’s time.

This excludes any support payments. Clearly dairy-beef farmer margins in 2023 are razor thin. More correctly, they are negative when you account for labour charge, unless we want farmers to sign up to work for nothing every year. Clearly some other payment or reward model is necessary.

Beef price gap

You can see why farmers get frustrated when they hear of increased standards of production while we lag behind our main beef market by over €1/kg.

This week Meat Industry Ireland launched its charter for sustainable beef production. The charter documents how the industry, with the help of farmers, will meet the targets as set out in the national Climate Action Plan along with meeting marketplace commitments. Surely one of the first steps on this sustainability road is farmer margin.

Animal welfare should be the priority

Some of the RTÉ Investigates footage on Tuesday night appeared to show practices that breach animal welfare rules. A Department of Agriculture investigation into the footage captured at a calf export centre must be both swift and effective.

We must ensure that regulations are upheld at all points in any animal’s life. Limiting the disease risk and proper management of fallen animals is also critical. We expect appropriate follow up by the relevant authorities in the coming weeks.

The Department has pledged to investigate all allegations of illegal or criminal behaviour and prepare files for prosecution where appropriate.