The 27 farmers taking part in the programme recorded an average gross margin of €709/ha in 2017, up 24% on 2016. Following on from gross margin, average net margin was €94/ha and €112/cow. No subsidies are included in these figures.

However, there is a wide range of results for all these categories as the group contains farms with massive variance in circumstances, eg: size, labour, infrastructure, existing genetics, soil type.

Indeed, there is a range of over €1,900/ha between the highest and the lowest net profit figures.

Net loss

Of the 27 participants, 10 made a net loss in 2017. However, this would have been accounted for during the farm planning process. A combination of farmers holding on to stock for longer (moving from live selling to finishing systems) and investing in areas like soil fertility and farm infrastructure are the principal reasons for farmers making a loss. The farmers will use credit facilities and off-farm incomes to stay afloat during this development phase.

Four years

In reality, any hype around these figures will be short-lived. The farmers are all aware that the programme is a marathon, not a sprint. Years three and four are when their businesses should peak. Investments made now will enable them to do so.

This week’s BETTER farm article will break down the ePM results on the basis of soil type, region, farm size and farmer occupation on top of production system. As well as looking at gross and net margins per hectare and cow, we will also examine important efficiency ratios that can be calculated from ePM results.

Labour

One figure that is sure to be a bone of contention is our €/hour labour measure. To calculate this we have taken a farm’s net profit figure and divided it into the farmer’s estimated working week. A more accurate labour measurement study has been running with a select number of BETTER farmers since June 2017. However, given a full year of this has yet to be completed, farmer estimates were used to calculate the figure this time round.

Read more

BETTER farm ePM analysis 2016

Mapping cashflow on BETTER farms

How to do an e-Profit Monitor