Beef farmers in Northern Ireland have a new set of decision tools to test whether buying cattle will pay. The College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE) has launched four beef business support calculators intended to help producers assess production options, plan ahead and make more informed business decisions.

"These calculators are designed as practical decision support tools to compare potential margins based on information they enter on purchase cost, expected feed costs, performance and sales value," said Allen Hall, business technologist at CAFRE. "Purchasing beef cattle now requires significant financial commitment and is not without risk. In periods of strong input prices, these calculators can assist farmers to plan, budget and model different scenarios."

The Short Keep Finishing Calculator estimates the margin from buying cattle for a short finishing period, using purchase price, expected animal performance, feed costs and carcass value to give a margin per head and per day. The Weanling/Store to Beef Calculator does the same for an animal bought as a weanling or store and carried through the store, grazing and finishing periods.

The Bull Beef Calculator models the intensive finishing of a bought-in weanling across a range of daily liveweight-gain scenarios, showing how performance changes final liveweight, carcass value and margin per head. The Keep or Sell Calculator compares selling a store animal now against keeping it on, weighing expected gain, extra feed and sundry costs and projected carcass value to show which option returns more.

CAFRE stresses that the figures pre-loaded in the tools are sample values only and that producers should enter their own farm's numbers. The calculators are available on the CAFRE website.

The launch comes at a time of high cattle prices and dear inputs across the island of Ireland, when the gap between the purchase price of a store animal and its eventual carcass value decides whether a finisher makes or loses money. Joe Griffin reported for Agriland.

Source: Agriland