Numbers in Ireland’s suckler herd will continue to fall unless “we can come up with a formula that can make a difference”, the director of Teagasc Prof Gerry Boyle has said.
He told the Irish Farmers Journal Beef Summit on Thursday night in Ballinasloe, Co Galway, that as far as he is concerned, the front-end issue facing the suckler sector is farm income.
“The beef sector is the most diverse sector that we have - it has a whole series of dimensions,” he said.
Prof Boyle said that seven years of National Farm Survey data shows that suckling gives an income which is only about one sixth of a dairy farmer's income.
Opportunities
On a positive note, he said that there are opportunities for sucklers.
“There are producers out there that are making some profit, albeit relatively small. There is an opportunity to improve technical performance. Teagasc is there to serve Irish farmers, we have to be responsive to you as to how we can do our job better,” he said.
There’s a linear relationship with stocking rate and farm incomes, Prof Boyle also said.
“Farmers at the top stocking rate are generating reasonable incomes, over €500/ha in net margin. In anyone’s money that is not bad,” he said, saying that it works out at more than €1,000 gross margin per hectare.
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Numbers in Ireland’s suckler herd will continue to fall unless “we can come up with a formula that can make a difference”, the director of Teagasc Prof Gerry Boyle has said.
He told the Irish Farmers Journal Beef Summit on Thursday night in Ballinasloe, Co Galway, that as far as he is concerned, the front-end issue facing the suckler sector is farm income.
“The beef sector is the most diverse sector that we have - it has a whole series of dimensions,” he said.
Prof Boyle said that seven years of National Farm Survey data shows that suckling gives an income which is only about one sixth of a dairy farmer's income.
Opportunities
On a positive note, he said that there are opportunities for sucklers.
“There are producers out there that are making some profit, albeit relatively small. There is an opportunity to improve technical performance. Teagasc is there to serve Irish farmers, we have to be responsive to you as to how we can do our job better,” he said.
There’s a linear relationship with stocking rate and farm incomes, Prof Boyle also said.
“Farmers at the top stocking rate are generating reasonable incomes, over €500/ha in net margin. In anyone’s money that is not bad,” he said, saying that it works out at more than €1,000 gross margin per hectare.
Read more
Watch: 'factories are bleeding us dry' say struggling beef farmers
Not enough pigmeat in the world to supply China's demand
Top tips: picking replacement heifers this spring
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