Beef cost of production: Finishing

We present costing and performance insights for beef finishing, using Farmbench data.

What does the 2023/24 season tell us?

For beef finishers in Farmbench, the data shows that the top 25% performers’ net margin have been similar over the last three years.

In 2023/24, the bottom 25% have a higher income per head of output in comparison to the top 25%. However, higher variable and fixed costs have resulted in them having lower net margins.

Labour and machinery costs continue to be among the highest overhead costs impacting on the net margin.

Producers have benefited from higher market prices over the last two years. However, a focus on cost control is essential to ensure finishing cattle is profitable.

Beef finishing ranked by full economic margin, per head of output

View PDF of 2022, 2023 and 2024 cost of production and net margin for beef finishing enterprises

Beef finishing: Cost of production		2024 Beef finishing			3 year average (2022,2023,2024)
Beef finishing: Cost of production		Top 25%	Middle 50%	Bottom 25%	Top 25%	Middle 50%	Bottom 25%
Key performance indicators	Cost of production (£/kg)	2.51	2.64	3.18	2.32	2.57	3.51
	Daily liveweight gain (kg/day)	0.77	0.88	0.69	0.76	0.87	0.89
	Mortality (%)	0.63	0.70	0.45	0.74	0.58	0.38
Enterprise details	Number sold/transferred/retained at closing	135	249	126	189	205.15	69.89
	Total forage area allocated to enterprise (ha)	56.59	25.43	42.36	47	33.68	30.35
	Number of weeks housed (weeks)	28	41	27	33	29.45	22.04
Technical performance	Age of opening and incoming cattle (days)	261	529	422	362	443.85	408.56
	Liveweight of opening and incoming cattle (kg/hd)	293.46	432.78	453.72	362	410.56	414.19
	Liveweight of sold/transferred/retained at closing (kg/hd)	490.63	579.73	605.46	534	565.65	583.64
	Weight produced per forage hectare (kg/ha)	465	1,408	444	681	983.24	349.58
	Non-forage feed fed DM (kg/hd)	234.34	1,029.15	392.18	792	765.51	582.32
	Harvested forage fed DM (kg/hd)	606.30	572.44	683.81	680	515.47	772.65
Income (£/head of output)	Total income	1,394.60	1,545.83	1,767.48	1,413.33	1,382.78	1,480.33
Variable costs (£/head of output)	Vet and medicine	10.10	6.97	7.14	8.90	8.32	13.92
	Bedding	32.62	24.05	28.06	21.07	27.16	24.46
	Total variable costs exc. feed	857.25	1,136.55	1,432.00	907.39	1,019.74	1,165.88
	Purchased feed including minerals	61.96	92.85	75.33	72.97	128.85	157.59
	Purchased forage	25.91	5.38	0.00	10.34	7.57	5.29
	Home-grown forage variable costs	18.37	18.69	20.79	16.65	16.81	25.27
	Total feed and forage costs	119.80	184.42	130.01	126.88	202.42	215.75
Overheads (£/head of output)	Total labour	87.97	75.15	113.50	69.04	83.04	244.30
	Total machinery and equipment	68.35	65.10	89.44	59.40	70.03	137.40
	Total property and energy costs	14.95	16.74	39.02	15.20	23.15	79.75
	Total administration costs	24.66	20.40	28.49	16.07	18.06	47.31
	Total overheads	253.83	207.81	365.45	202.86	234.47	632.95
Cost of production and margins (£/head of output)	Full economic cost of production	1,230.88	1,528.78	1,927.45	1,237.14	1,456.63	2,014.58
Cost of production and margins (£/head of output)	Full economic net margin	163.72	17.06	-159.97	176.20	-73.85	-534.25

Characteristics of top- and bottom-performing beef and sheep farms

Our insights are informed by a statistical examination of the Farm Business Survey and a case study analysis that identifies what key actions top performers take that promote success.

The study also offers a list of considerations for ways in which beef and sheep farm businesses can improve their margins.

Read our study about traits of top performing farms

Understanding the data

Farmbench is an online benchmarking tool that allows you to compare your farm to similar businesses, facilitated by AHDB and our Farmbench managers.

The latest production year insights have been pulled from the tool and displayed below.

A ‘production year’ means a 12-month period which covers all financial and physical activity relating to the production of the annual crop (plant or animal) from an enterprise. For example, the 2023/24 production year is associated with 2024 lambing, and calving for autumn 2023 and spring 2024.

For 2023/24 insights, the Farmbench tool gathered data from a total of 97 farms across England.

This 2023/24 total included 77 suckler herd, 31 finishing beef and 58 store beef enterprises, and 84 breeding flock and 56 finishing lamb enterprises.

All the data has been averaged into three benchmark groups and ranked by full economic net profit margin: top 25%, middle 50% and bottom 25% performers.

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