Robin Talbot farms in partnership with his mother Pam and wife Ann in Ballacolla, Co Laois. His thoughts on the present state of the beef industry are thought provoking.
There is a saying in politics: You should never waste a good crisis and we certainly have a crisis in the beef industry.
I always think you should never make system-changing decisions in anger but I think it’s a good frame of mind to be in when you are analysing and assessing what you have done and what you intend to do.
We went to see our accountant last week to discuss last year’s farm accounts. For the past few years, our economic situation has either been static or slightly down. What is probably most disappointing was that this continued last year despite the record beef prices. This is a very worrying trend.
When we look at this year so far, it is hard to see anything other than that it is going to be worse again. The one thing coming through year on year is that, in spite of our best efforts, our cost of production seems to be going up. The three main culprits on this farm are feed, fertiliser and contracting.
The heifers we have sold in 2014 are down 40c/kg carcass-weight on those sold at exactly the same time last year. This equates to €140/hd. Some bulls that we sold recently, which were 18 months, are back by almost 50c/kg. This means they are down €200/hd. So when we average our bulls and our heifers, we are down approximately €170/cow gross income. That is the stark reality.
Before we make any major decisions, we have to complete our profit monitor to see if there are any major holes in our system or is it just that our system has passed its sell-by date?
I usually love this time of year. But, this year, it is very hard to have enthusiasm for it. It would be our normal practice to buy in our replacement heifers as early as we can in the spring to have them ready and settled for the breeding season at the back-end of the year. But we are going to adopt a wait and see approach for the moment. Unless some optimism filters into the industry there is a strong possibility we won’t bring any heifers into the herd this year.
This is the first time we have come to the edge of this particular precipice, but I have always said the worst reason to do something is because it is what you have always done; if radical changes are needed, they are better made sooner than later.
In the last six months, we have had an unannounced cross-compliance inspection and our Bord Bia Quality Assurance inspection, both of which we completed and passed.
Thinking back to the horsemeat scandal, I have to wonder if we would be in this particular situation if the same level of monitoring of practices was being implemented outside the farm gate?
Robin Talbot is considering not buying replacement heifers due to the beef crisis.
When the current Minister of Agriculture was appointed I thought he was a breath of fresh air, but he now needs to really step up to the plate on this issue or I fear that we are looking at the imminent demise of the commercial suckler herd.
Meanwhile, the day-to-day farm work goes on. We have slurry spread and some ground closed up for early silage. Most of the cows and calves are out at this stage. The in-calf heifers are still in the shed. I suppose, like everyone else, what we really need, is a rise in temperatures, which always transforms the countryside.
All the tillage land is ploughed. One of the things about this part of the country is that the tillage land dries out very fast but the downside of this is that there are always plenty of stones to be picked.
We ploughed a field of ley and sowed oats in it. The rest of the land is for spring barley and the clay is quite wet at the moment so we are in no rush to get working on it. I would rather sow it late in good conditions. Ideally we would like to have it sowed by mid-April at the latest.
Robin Talbot farms in partnership with his mother Pam and wife Ann in Ballacolla, Co Laois. Robin can be contacted at robin.talbot@independent.ie
(Source – Irish Independent – Robin Talbot – 01/04/2014)