ResearchBenchmarking technical and economic performance of beef cow-calf to finishing production systems in Ireland
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INTRODUCTION
Although beef prices reached record high levels in the last decade (Behrendt and Weeks, 2017), few countries reported positive levels of profitability on cattle farms without the aid of government support payments (Deblitz et al., 2016). Irish beef cow-calf farms are, on average, loss making without the aid of EU support payments and off-farm income (Hennessy and Moran, 2016); however, there is large variation in profitability. For example, among a sample of farms in Ireland, the top third
Irish Grass-Based Beef Cow-Calf to Finishing Systems
The beef cow herd in Ireland comprises crossbred cows, predominantly (80%) late-maturing breed types bred to mostly (86%) late-maturing breed sires (DAFM, 2016). Cows primarily calve in spring, with 62% of beef calves born in the first 4 mo of the year (DAFM, 2016), to coincide with the onset of seasonal grass growth. Cows rear their own calves until weaning, usually at the end of the first grazing season (Drennan and McGee, 2009). Grass, either grazed or conserved, is the major dietary input
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Globally, the profitability of beef cow-calf to finishing farms is low (Deblitz et al., 2016). This profitability challenge prompted the establishment of the Teagasc–Irish Farmers Journal BETTER farms beef program (Teagasc, 2015b) in Ireland. This program includes a commercially focused group of farms, operating at similar stocking rates aiming to meet research targets, which can be compared with the national-average beef cow-calf to finishing farms. Hence, these data provide a unique
IMPLICATIONS
Key profit drivers identified in this study include BW output per LU, stocking rate, calving rate, calving interval, age at first calving, and costs of production, particularly relating to feedstuffs. Thus, to increase beef cow-calf to finishing profitability on AVE and IMP, improvements are required in animal production efficiency. This necessitates optimizing the number of calves produced in a cow’s lifetime by calving heifers younger and achieving a 365-d calving interval as well as
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors would like to thank the management team and participants of the Teagasc/Irish Farmers Journal BETTER farms beef programme, the Teagasc National Farm Survey Department, and the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation. Rachel Taylor received of a Teagasc postgraduate student Walsh Fellowship.
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2022, Agricultural SystemsCitation Excerpt :Whole-farm beef systems simulation models are commonly used to facilitate a more holistic evaluation of alternative production systems (Murphy et al., 2017; Taylor et al., 2020; Herron et al., 2021). Key performance indicators underpinning profitable grass-based beef systems include high individual animal performance, optimal stocking rates, and low fixed and purchased feed costs (Taylor et al., 2018). The feed budget composition for the G-0 weanling-to-beef system, comprised of 0.44 grazed grass, 0.43 grass silage and 0.14 concentrate, which contrasts with that of 0.61 grazed grass, 0.31 grass silage and 0.08 concentrates for integrated grass-based suckler calf-to-beef systems (Drennan and McGee, 2009).
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2020, Agricultural SystemsCitation Excerpt :Replacement rate (RR) (%): mean number of first calving cows as a percentage of the total number of cows calved in a given year. High (HRR) and low (LRR) replacement rates represent one standard deviation from the mean (Taylor et al., 2018). Progeny average daily live weight gain (ADG) (g): mean ADG of each gender group was calculated based on carcass weight per day of age converted to live weight with an assumed kill-out proportion of 0.57 and 0.56 for steers and heifers, respectively.
Impact of age at first calving on performance traits in Irish beef herds
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The authors declare no conflict of interest.