Why does beef play second fiddle to dairy?

Beef farmer Ciarán Lenehan wonders why higher targets are set for the dairy sector.
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The recent strategic advisory plan for Laois, Kildare, Meath, Louth and Dublin tells a familiar story. Initially, I was buoyed by the positive target for the drystock industry. But, further examination revealed that the contrasting target for dairying is twice as high.
Frustration momentarily crept in. It’s the same old story; beef playing second fiddle to a thriving dairy industry. In what was a chuckle-inducing coincidence, a pal made an interesting observation soon after which highlights the issue even further. The Irish Farmers Journal’s new ‘Grass +’ feature is a welcome addition to the publication. But, out of the four beef case-studies, only two had average farm cover figures and not one had a figure for growth in their farm.
Across the page, all four of their milking counterparts boasted the full complement of the said figures and more. Not for a second am I being critical of the men in question, upon further reading I realised that they were tearing ahead of us in terms of turning stock out; it’s just an observation that reflects the state of the two industries beautifully. The E-Profit Monitor tells a similar story. The top 25% of beef-men are achieving a stocking rate of less than 2 LU/ha; a milking man would tell you that he’d do 2.4 comfortably.
Then realism set in. Firstly, it is inevitable that the beef industry will lose some of its best men in the years to come. Stockmen, who have longed to put their talents to good use in a more financially rewarding setting, now have the opportunity to swap their Charolais for clusters. The document puts no figure on expected changeover numbers, but interestingly predicted a small increase (3%) in new entrants to beef. Brave men…
Reality
Secondly, the huge number of part-time enterprises in the drystock sector has to be taken into account. There are 77,000 dedicated beef farms in Ireland and 42% of persons in the industry have some form of off-farm employment. We at home, also fall into the category. The reality is that the scale required to make a living from beef is extremely difficult to achieve. For many, beef farming is a hobby that acts an escape from the world of 9 to 5 pencil-pushing, whilst simultaneously inflating their incomes. Not a bad setup really?
We owe a lot to the dairy industry as beef farmers. Many of the advances we’ve made in the last decade were first tried-and-tested on dairy farms. Genetics and grass management, two of the suckler farmer’s most effective tools, were both resources initially tapped on a large scale by dairy men. It’s like one big game of piggy-back.
No longer am I irked by the advisory targets. Beef accounts for nearly €2 billion of gross agricultural output, second only to the dairy industry’s €2.4 billion. All of that beef, and we only start our working day at 5pm. Do catch up lads…
Source: Farmers Journal

Mirá También

Así lo expresó Domingo Possetto, secretario de la seccional Rafaela, quien además, afirmó que a los productores «habitualmente los ignoran los gobiernos». Además, reconoció la labor de los empresarios de las firmas locales y aseguró que están «esperanzados» con la negociación entre SanCor y Adecoagro.

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