By Teagasc Green Acres Calf to Beef Programme advisor Seán Cummins

In an era of beef price volatility, maximising animal performance and keeping a firm handle on costs are key to generating a profit in calf to beef systems.

As profitability is a function of sales, less purchases and costs, maximising the performance of every animal is key to optimising profitability.

Notable improvements in livestock performance have been recorded across the Teagasc Green Acres farms. One farmer who has made a number of tweaks and is now beginning to witness increased performance is Richard Long in Ballymacarbry, Co. Waterford.

At the start of the programme, the underperformance of animals was quickly identified as a contributing factor to lower than desired levels of profitability on the Waterford-based holding.

In April 2019, Richard’s weanling heifers weighed just 268kg at turnout after achieving a lifetime daily gain of 0.54kg/day. The steers on the farm were even further back, after just gaining 0.48kg/day since birth, to stand at 248kg.

Over the intervening period, Richard has made a number of adjustments at farm level to ensure animal performance is maximised, central to this, however, has been the management of weanlings over their first winter on-farm.

As a result of these changes, Richard has seen the lifetime daily gain of his steers improve to 0.76kg/day to put them at 321kg at turnout in March – after gaining 0.73kg/day over the winter.

Heifers on the farm weighed 323kg at turnout, after achieving an average daily gain of 0.74kg/day since birth, or 0.76kg/day over the winter months.

performance Teagasc Green Acres

Silage quality

Coming from a position where it appeared animals were stalling and underperforming over their first winter, a focus has been placed on the feeding practices at farm level, especially in terms of silage quality and concentrate feeding levels.

Speaking about his plans, Richard explained: “The big thing has really been the silage quality. I’m now planning on having the silage harvested by May 20, at the latest.

“I am very happy with my yearlings this year and I think they’re the best bunch of cattle I’ve had. It’s really about getting the system right once and repeating it year in, year out.

“Better quality silage is really helping. Last year, we harvested the first cut silage on May 14, to give us 72.1 DMD [Dry Matter Digestibility] silage, and that helped to reduce the quantity of meal we needed to feed over the winter months.”

The improvements in turnout weight being seen at farm level are starting to also pay dividends when it comes to animal performance at slaughter.

Early-maturing steers, born in the spring of 2016, had been slaughtered at an average age of 25.6 months, out of the shed, to produce an average carcass weight of 287kg.

With the improvements outlined above, 2019-born early-maturing steers were slaughtered at 22.6 months to generate an average carcass weight of 295kg – 8kg heavier at three months younger.

In terms of the early-maturing heifers produced on farm, the 2016-born animals produced a 243kg carcass at 24 months in 2018. Whereas comparable early-maturing heifers, born in 2019, produced a 251kg carcass at just 21 months.

performance Teagasc Green Acres

2020 profitability

Excluding subsidies of any kind, the farm generated a net margin of €18/ha in 2020.

Looking solely at this picture doesn’t portray the farming enterprise in a favourable light. However, it must be noted that a large degree of reseeding, fencing and soil fertility improvements are on-going on the farm.

This spending is being treated as an investment in the farming business and wouldn’t be a viable option only that Richard works full-time off farm. Once the correct grazing infrastructure is in place and soil fertility has been corrected, the annual spend is expected to decrease significantly.

To put the extent of the spend into context, Richard outlaid an extra €108/ha of a combined spend on fertiliser, lime and reseeding in 2020 when compared to 2018 spending. Fixed costs have also climbed by €48/ha on account of land reclamation and fencing.

Table profitability and targets for Richard Long’s farm:

Year20202021 (projected)
Gross output (LW kg/ha)1,0481,157
Sales (€/ha)2,7472,321
Purchases (€/ha)478423
Net inventory change (€/ha)-419+93
Gross output (€/ha)1,8511,991
Variable costs (€/ha)1,144996
Variable costs (% of gross output)62%50%
Gross margin707995
Fixed costs689689
Net margin18306

Looking forward on this Teagasc Green Acres farm

After undergoing a system change where animals were previously slaughtered out of the shed in late spring, Richard’s sales are expected to settle this year as approximately 50 animals will be slaughtered prior to November – with the remainder carried to beef in January and February.

Richard’s sales per ha peaked in 2020 on account of a change in production system, with animals slaughtered at younger ages prior to the turn of the year.

To balance the sales figure with stock at hand at the close of the year, stock inventory is used. With the system settling this year, it is expected that the negative correction in stock inventory change witnessed in 2020 will not be as severe.

Gross output on the farm for the year ahead is projected at €1,991/ha, with variable costs also expected to decrease downwards on account of a lower spend on concentrates and reseeding.

With fixed costs budgeted to remain at similar levels to last year on this Teagasc Green Acres farm, a net margin of €306/ha is projected for the year ahead when budgets where completed at a base beef price of €3.75/kg.