Beef price next spring: Farmers need €7.00/kg
“ICSA is adamant that €7/kg will be needed next spring to cover such inflated production costs and to allow a minor profit for the effort.”
That is the claim Edmund Graham, the organisation’s beef chairman, made this morning (Friday, April 22nd, 2022) in light of rising production costs.
Beef price next spring
Speaking about his own beef finishing enterprise. Mr Graham said:
“Indications are that it will cost upwards of €600/head to feed bulls in a shed for 100 days through next winter.”
“How are farmers supposed to afford that? What are the meat factories prepared to do?” he asked.
Graham stressed that factories cannot “stay silent”. He believes they must provide guidance, assistance and forward price guarantees to suppliers.
As That’s Farming reported, Graham believes that “soaring” farm input costs are now more of a threat than Brexit to cattle and sheep farmers.
Farm incomes in 2022
Last week, Teagasc revealed that Farm Family Income (FFI) on cattle rearing farms (suckler-beef production) may decrease by 25% in 2022.
It believes this could drop by approximately 16% on ‘cattle other’ farms.
Those are the figures it published in its revised ‘situation and outlook for Irish agriculture’ report last week.
The report stated that the impact of input expenditure growth could exceed 2022 output value growth.
Furthermore, it added that overhead costs may increase by 11%.
It acknowledged that purchased feed and pasture costs dominate the direct costs of beef production.
Also, total production costs on single suckling and cattle finishing enterprises could rise by 24% and 30%.
The body predicts that the average gross margin on the single suckling enterprise will fall by approximately 13% this year.
Meanwhile, it says that the average gross margin on cattle finishing farms could be similar to 2021 due to the farms in the top-third of profitability. Read more on this news story.
