Live exports fall by 21% in 2016

The export of live cattle have fallen to a 10-year low, a meeting heard last week.

Adam Woods

21 December 2016

Richard Milligan, Roberstown, Co Kildare, moves his Hereford cross beef stock to a strip of fresh Stego fodder rape. The animals on average are 20 months old and will be slaughtered in the spring. Photo: Jack Caffrey

To make €200/cow profit, a suckler farmer needs a beef price of €4.47/kg an IFA-organised beef meeting heard last week.Teagasc head of drystock Pearse Kelly presented figures at last week’s meeting showing that suckler farmers require a steer price of €4.47/kg to return a net margin of €200/cow. This analysis was completed using the 2015 profit monitor data, estimated to be the top 25% of farmers in the country.

To make €200/cow profit, a suckler farmer needs a beef price of €4.47/kg an IFA-organised beef meeting heard last week.

Teagasc head of drystock Pearse Kelly presented figures at last week’s meeting showing that suckler farmers require a steer price of €4.47/kg to return a net margin of €200/cow. This analysis was completed using the 2015 profit monitor data, estimated to be the top 25% of farmers in the country.

The figures come at a time when the Irish beef price continues to lag behind counterparts in the EU. The EU average R3 steer price last week was €3.70/kg, the UK average, €4.24/kg and Irish average €3.60/kg. This means that no margin or profit is being derived from suckler farms at present.

Meanwhile, Irish live cattle exports are set to reach their lowest point in the last 10 years. This is coupled with a projected 2017 beef kill which would be the highest in 10 years.

The figures were revealed at the same meeting last week.

For the week ending 3 December, some 134,965 head were exported from Ireland; this is down from 171,655 in 2015. The 2016 figure will finish slightly higher, with a final boat of weanlings departing from Ireland to Turkey this week.

Almost every live export market has seen drops, with the largest fall coming in finished cattle exported live to Northern Ireland, which is down 56% on 2015 levels.

As seen in the map, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands have also seen massive reductions in cattle imported from Ireland. Spain is down 20%, Italy 24% and the Netherlands 38%.

These figures come on the back of Bord Bia estimating that there will be an extra 100,000 cattle to be slaughtered in 2017 and the beef kill likely to reach record levels at 1.74m. This will be the highest kill in the last decade.

Comment

Industry at crossroads

It’s hard to glean any positives from last Thursday night’s IFA beef meeting. A record kill forecast in 2017, reduced live exports, Brexit and reduced beef consumption wouldn’t inspire confidence in an industry that is unable to return a viable income to beef finishers. Anger, despair, dismay and disappointment were echoed around the room in questions directed to the top table. The most frustrating issue of all was that nobody has answers or even a plan to attain a viable income for beef farmers. Many beef farmers leaving the meeting were resigned to the fact there isn’t a lot anybody can do. Well-known Tipperary beef farmer Denis Large said: “The writing is on the wall for the suckler cow. She can’t survive at current prices. Something has to change and I’m beginning to think that change needs to come from me in reducing numbers. I’ve used my Single Farm payment again this year to subsidise processor profits and this is the last time this will happen.”

IFA president Joe Healy said the association was actively pursuing a €200 cow suckler cow payment and that beef farmers needed to demand a higher price to survive.