Better farm Beef programme

agriman27

Is anyone on here in the better farm beef programme or get advise from a teagasc advisor to do profit monitor. I find kinda the programme interesting and they do seem to be delivering results. My father never used an advisor and I'm just curious what sort of money does it cost per year and people's opinions on the advisory service. Could be just what I need:pac::pac:

visatorro

just looking at it from an outside point of view, the better farm programme means very well obviously but alot of the things they preach just cant run on alot of beef farms. ie early turnout out, rotational grazing, use of ai. if youve a fragmented farm and no help its difficult. teagasc depends alot of the advisor tbh. and the budget is being cut there the whole time so its gonna be more difficult for them to provide a service aswell. add to that they are all civil servants and wont admit that they are wrong or stray from the company line. it wont cost anything to go to any farm walks ( dairy of beef ) in your area, just to see how things are done on different places. wont cost anything to ask a few fellas questions either.

Coonagh

I think this programme has been a good idea but I do think it has now run its course. The no. 1 focus has been always been on increasing gross margin and this is the main figure quoted when any of the farms are discussed, I think this tells its own story in regards to the profitability of the beef sector. As far as I'm concerned gross margin means zip the only figure that matters for any business is net margin

Miname

The better farm programme is a gift in this country. everyone can say that wont work on my farm but theres a seriously wide and varying amount of farmers in the programme and its far from run its course. net margin means diddly squat to me, the only level playing field is gross margin. We can all sit on our arses and say we know it all but its great to see people trying and they should be commended rather than bitched about.

Get yourself a good advisor, join icbf herdplus and then try and set out some sort of plan and try to work from there. Even if it doesnt work, at least you will be a little wiser.

agriman27

The thing that interests me about the scheme is the individual attention and advise on the investment of drainage and soil fertility, at the minute here I'm lightly stocked with overall low soil fertility and some poor drainage.I don't know whether I can justify fixing the problems or just continue as I am but I'd like to be more progressive

caseman

visatorro wrote: »

just looking at it from an outside point of view, the better farm programme means very well obviously but alot of the things they preach just cant run on alot of beef farms. ie early turnout out, rotational grazing, use of ai. if youve a fragmented farm and no help its difficult. teagasc depends alot of the advisor tbh. and the budget is being cut there the whole time so its gonna be more difficult for them to provide a service aswell. add to that they are all civil servants and wont admit that they are wrong or stray from the company line. it wont cost anything to go to any farm walks ( dairy of beef ) in your area, just to see how things are done on different places. wont cost anything to ask a few fellas questions either.

Why would early turnout and rotational grazing not work on a fragmented farm.

Coonagh

I will agree that output has increased significantly on the better farms and as a result they have all increased there gross margins, but I seriously doubt if net profit has increased in line with this. Read Sean coughlans last article on the journal it said just that. Bottom line is output/gross margin is vanity profit is sanity.

visatorro

caseman wrote: »

Why would early turnout and rotational grazing not work on a fragmented farm.

If your part time farming and have no help sometimes it's difficult. Also wet land can't be grazed early. Not saying it's impossible but difficult