There is a massive decrease in profitability when the age at first calving is increased to 36 months rather than 24 months, with an increase in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions also seen.
This is according to Teagasc’s Mark McGee who spoke about the consequences of not meeting performance targets on beef farms.
Speaking at the Beef2022 Open Day on performance targets for resilient beef production, Mark said: “We are looking at the percentage change in profitability expressed as a net margin/head and on the percentage change in GHG emissions produced/kg of liveweight, when selling animals live, or per kilogram carcass weight when bringing animals to finish.
“To illustrate this, we focused on the systems spoken about at the first stand.”
These include:
- Suckler-to-weanling enterprises;
- Suckler weanling-to-beef enterprises;
- Dairy calf-to-beef enterprises.
“In terms of the suckler calf-to-weanling system, the key performance indicators (KPIs) we looked at were increasing the age at first calving from 24 months up to 36 months,” McGee continued.
“We looked at reducing calving rate, going from 96% down to 91% and increasing calf mortality from 4.1% up to 8.6%.
“[This was] along with reducing the grazing season by a month, by turning out cattle on April 1, rather than March 1.
“What we can see here in all cases is where we don’t meet our KPIs, we get a reduction in profitability and we get an increase in GHG emissions.
“And this is most apparent when increasing the age at first calving where we had a massive decrease in income/head.
“Again reflecting the cost of carrying an unproductive animal for another year.
“So this goes back to the point where animals need to be in productive mode throughout their life.”
Mark’s take-home message was to know your targets, monitor them, and that an increase in performance would reflect an increase in profitability and a decrease in the carbon footprint of the farm.