beef price tracker

DBK1 wrote: »

I hope you didn’t take me up wrong, I definitely don’t think you are fooling yourself. Much the opposite really, if you can get your costs down to that I admire your efficiency. Like Anto said earlier, I’m not here that long either and I’ve also figured out that you’re generally on the ball with your figures. The point I was making was that the majority of beef farmers would not be meeting that standard of efficiency so for anyone reading this and thinking about their own costs I’d be reasonably confident they would get it hard to match yours.

It was a brave move building a shed to that value and obviously it was a move that payed off but not a lot of lads would have done that so lads putting up smaller bits of sheds every couple of years would have more costs to consider. You also said you got to write it off at the higher rate of tax so I’m assuming you have (or at least had at that time) a reasonably well paying off farm job. That in effect subsidised your farm as it was the tax paid from your job that made it possible to write off at the high rate. Any full time farmers or lads with lower paying off farm jobs wouldn’t have this advantage.

I agree with your point about the jeep as well, I don’t have a big land cruiser myself either. If the Rav is a lifestyle choice then absolutely go for it. But for someone without an off farm job the farm has to pay for that choice so it is a cost to be considered.

I supposed my main point is fixed costs will be different on every farm and it’s up to everyone to know their own but for anyone that thinks your costs are high then i don’t think they understand what their costs are and they are definitely fooling themselves.

Bass Reeves wrote: »

You did not tell me I was fooling myself. Yes fixed costs are different on every farm. However I bought this farm in the early noughties. It was a learning curve.

However some lads become obsessed with fixed costs and they get exaggerated. In beef farming you have to look at every cost and see is it justified. That is not to mean you have to be running around the place with pallets and a bit of baling twine.
I am semi retired now so the RAV was the choice of vehicle I bought for myself,it's 2010. But I looked at different options. Other half drives an IX 35 now they both are on the books. However I see lads driving LC and Hiluxes doing high mileage and saying they are loosing money. They have no more stock than I have. It like the lad in the pub with three pints in his hands complaining about the cost of living in Ireland and he cannot afford to live here.

I am not saying everything is rosy but you have to be efficient and work with the system as well to make money. But a 100 acre+ farm if set up right could be a part-time gig now. I have gone into such farms, the lad is running a Hilux taking the kids to school as the missus is working and he is messing around with a few suckler's and tangling on the side or doing a bit of contracting. He could have a tractor, slurry tank and maybe a baler and wrapper but the farm is not fenced internally.

morphy87 wrote: »

Off topic, but what do you know about this new grass based scheme? Just a few questions that you might be able to answer? If you comply with the criteria will you get a bonus or top up when selling factory cattle? If so how much are they taking and when do they hope to have this scheme in place?

Bass Reeves wrote: »

There are a few issues with it. First cattle have to be on s QA farm from 9 months. If age.ndiet gas to be 90%grass on a fresh weight basis. After that it depends on the bonus. However it will eliminate tanglers a bit more. Unless he is QA any cattle from him will not qualify for bonus. The other question is will this bonus be able to be topped up by the AA or HE schemes.

Bonus would want to be fairly decent to allow for a QA farm from 9 months. Larger feedlots will be excluded as grass silage will be required as a main source in the diet. It may also elimate lads finishing on 70-100 day high ration diets.

But bonus would need to be 30-50c/kg to really be worth it along with AA and HE top up for these cattle types. I imagine weight limits will be a factor as well.

We will need to see more fine details to get an idea of it. One thing to note will the under nine month animal be a way to force dairy farmers to carry calves to weanlings or outsource it to prevent Bobby calves

Bass Reeves wrote: »

If you can source stores that qualify. It will be relatively easy to source them as weanlings all calves up to 9 ymontgs quality. However when over 9 months it dependent on farm being in the scheme and calf being in a QA grass farm from 9 months. Unless bonus is substantial as in the 30c+/kg range it will be hard to get store producers to opt for QA as benefits may not be visible.

However if bonus was 33c/kg a 330 kg carcasse would be worth hundred euro more so that would give 50euro to store man and finisher. But remember carcass weight will be lighter and animal may be harder to flesh

Robson99 wrote: »

Did you try any of them ?.
Unlikely anyone will have all 3

Robson99 wrote: »

Talk of 3.75 for heifers in Athleague but there will probably be 10 conditions attached to get that

locha wrote: »

Yes you will as long as you know at least 2 agents

morphy87 wrote: »

That’s good to hear, I was talking to an agent over the weekend he was quoting 3.70 with the possibility of 3.75 this week, he said cattle are very scarce

Grueller wrote: »

Would you not have to test them out of your herd before selling them?