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Is Turkey a big player in world beef production?
Turkey is the world’s 16th-largest beef producer (when the EU is counted as one producer), with 1.7m tonnes produced in 2017.
Why is Turkey importing our cattle?
Even with a national herd of 14m, Turkey is in a beef deficit. Average annual consumption per head is similar to the EU at 11.4kg, but the supply issue arises with the fact that there are 81m people to feed.
Livestock being exported to Turkey. \ Philip Doyle
Are we their main source for live cattle?
Not by a long shot. While Ireland exported over 30,000 cattle to Turkey in 2017, South American animals arriving on Turkish shores numbered 10 times this. In all, Turkey imports around 550,000 cattle annually.
Why import cattle and not beef to fill the gap in supply?
The government chooses to import live animals as opposed to beef, in order to support Turkish finishing farmers, as well as ensuring the country’s meat is processed using Islamic customs. Live imports are not popular among farmers.
What about the suckler herd in Turkey?
The Turkish government has placed a big emphasis on driving native beef production. To try to become more self-sufficient, the government has implemented an annual subsidy payment of around €180 per beef cow. Interestingly, the slaughter of heifers for beef is outlawed. It is unclear whether this is a political measure to encourage native cow numbers (farmers have no choice but to breed them), or driven by religious beliefs.
What type of cattle are we sending there?
Commercial farms are banned from importing fattening animals from the EU. However, government farms can do so and have imported good numbers of Irish feeder cattle since late 2016.
A Zebu animal from Brazil.
These commercial farms must look elsewhere to places such as South America as a foreign source of cattle for finishing at present, though there are mutterings that Turkish farmers could be given the go-ahead to take in EU beef cattle later this year. Breeding animals can be imported to commercial farms from the EU and good numbers of these have sailed from Ireland so far.
How long does the journey take and where do the Irish animals dock in Turkey?
It all depends on the destination and the boat. A faster boat can take three to four days off a journey and we saw this at the end of 2016 when the Atlantic M vessel, measuring 100m x 17m, took 13 days to make the voyage to the port of Mersin, while the larger Brahman Express, a younger ship measuring 133m x 16m, covered the same distance in nine days. The Brahman express can carry 40-50% more animals. Irish cattle have also docked in Derince.
Who is tasked with feeding the animals on the boats?
Kiernan Milling, based on Granard, Co Longford, is involved in looking after the animals’ diets in transit.
Are there any other countries closer to home sending cattle there?
The Irish Farmers Journal has learned that the Czech Republic has sent some purebred Charolais breeding bulls to commercial farms in Turkey also.
What’s the beef price in Turkey and how are carcases graded?
Beef price at the moment in Turkey is running at €5.30/kg, which is actually low relative to previous years. Grading is not as advanced as our EUROP system, with carcases classed as either ‘fat’ or ‘not fat’.
What are the main ingredients fed on finishing farms?
Many finishing farmers will buy in their own ingredients. In southern Turkey, top-quality maize grain can be brought in from Russia or the Ukraine for €180/t. Along with barley, it forms the main energy source in the diet. Barley straw and alfalfa hay are important roughage sources, along with maize silage on which the majority of diets are based.
What price are the South American cattle costing farmers?
Zebu bulls are a common sight in feedlots, costing the equivalent of approximately €3.65/kg delivered after a 25-day boat journey. These typically weigh about 250kg on arrival. Fed hard, these animals will achieve gains in excess of 1.4kg daily once they acclimatise. They can kill out at around 55% and produce a carcase of 230kg to 280kg.
Hereford-cross animals from Uruguay.
Angus- and Hereford-cross bulls are also common. They cost around €4.10/kg delivered and are usually typical of the more squat genetics that predominate in North American feedlots. Their carcases will average 350kg to 400kg.
What margin per head are Turkish finishers extracting?
Target margin per head, all in, is the equivalent of €300-€350.
What challenges do Turkish finishers face?
The playing field for a Turkish finisher is an attractive one. A farmer can erect a fattening unit and can buy animals without having any land linked to his herd, as an Irish farmer must for nutrient management reasons. Given that there are so many different sources of cattle, disease can be a problem. But, the government has taken a proactive approach to this, with measures such as mandatory foot-and-mouth disease vaccinations – a disease still rearing its head in South America. Farmers are permitted to administer prophylactic doses of potent antibiotics such as Draxxin as a preventative measure against disease under veterinary supervision to, for example, incoming animals.
Bord Bia’s Joe Burke recently visited Turkey along with Angus Woods and Kevin Kinsella from the IFA. Joe said Ireland began exporting cattle to Turkey in autumn 2016 and the graph outlines the detail, with almost 20,000 animals exported in 2016. This figure rose to 30,562 in 2017 and so far in 2018 there have been 3,702 animals exported. At the moment, 60% of animals are imported to Turkey from Brazil and Uruguay, with 15% coming from Australia and 25% coming from Hungary, Czech Republic, Spain and Ireland.
Most of the weanlings exported to Turkey from Ireland have been young bulls for further finishing, with 4,000 breeding heifers also exported. The bulls must be under 12 months of age, less than 300kg and need to be in quarantine for 21 days before export. The Turkish government has introduced an annual payment of 750 Turkish Lira (€175) per beef cow and calf. This payment has led to a strong demand for breeding heifers in Turkey. On the trip, Turkish officials were very interested in how Ireland has introduced a maternal selection index and how genomics is being used to advance cattle breeding. Turkey is increasingly becoming an important export market for Irish genetics, with 400,000 doses of semen exported from Ireland to Turkey in 2017.
One of the feedlots visited by Bord Bia had a capacity for 3,500 head. Young bulls were being fed a high-energy cereal-based diet. The feedlot owner was extremely happy with his Irish purchases, with the bulls averaging almost 450kg carcase at 19 to 20 months of age.
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