On page 21, we hear calls for more organic beef finishing units. It’s almost as if we forgot to engage with farmers about this step in the process of producing organic product.

The very real problem with this final step is the fact that it is high cost. Conventional feed is not cheap, and organic feed is about twice the cost of conventional feed so the risk is double or more.

Conventional, relatively small, family operated beef finishers have left the game because they take all the risk and can’t get a guaranteed price or margin for finished beef.

The sums for finishers are easy to do: stock purchase price, plus feed and labour costs and you know your break even price very quickly. Teagasc says this sits at over €6/kg for ordinary conventional beef finishers.

Include €100/head to get some return for the risk, capital tied up and hassle and you are closer to €6.20/kg required. Then you have to ask yourself, knowing all this, do you roll the dice? Farmers have pushed meat factories for a contract price to no avail.

It’s hard enough to get a return on conventional beef without a guaranteed market – it is even harder with organic beef. Farmers are not fools, and we shouldn’t be expecting or advising them to live horse and get grass.

Understanding food and farming

It is crucial in the run up to the election that everyone is well informed about what farming and food delivers for rural Ireland.

In the next week alone, there are a number of free to attend events that will bring you right up to speed if that is what you want.

Macra are holding their annual Rally in Kildare this weekend. The Irish Grassland Association is holding an evening in the Horse & Jockey Hotel next Wednesday 30 October.

The IFA has a summit at the Curragh on Thursday 31 October, and we in the Irish Farmers Journal are hosting five suckler mart events along the western seaboard (see p55) starting in Elphin on 29 October, continuing in Milford, Donegal on 31 October, and then in November in Ennis, Mayo and Kerry.

If you want to stay informed, any of these events are as good a place to start as any.