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Beef cost of production: Stores
We present costing and performance insights for beef stores, using Farmbench data.
What does the 2023/24 season tell us?
For the 2023/24 season, the top 25% performers show a stronger net margin for beef stores in comparison to the previous two years on Farmbench. This is driven by higher prices, giving a total higher income, and a reduction in overheads costs.
The top 25% performers for beef stores saw a slight reduction in the cost of production on the year, with feed and forage costs and total overhead costs being lower than the previous year.
Beef stores ranked by full economic net margin, per head of output
View PDF of 2022, 2023 and 2024 cost of production and net margin for beef stores
| Beef stores: Cost of production | 2024 Beef stores | Three-year average (2022, 2023, 2024) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top 25% | Middle 50% | Bottom 25% | Top 25% | Middle 50% | Bottom 25% | ||
| Key performance indicators | Cost of production (£/kg) | 2.12 | 3.01 | 4.08 | 2.10 | 2.74 | 3.70 |
| Daily liveweight gain (kg/day) | 0.76 | 0.77 | 0.44 | 0.70 | 0.74 | 0.47 | |
| Mortality (%) | 0.55 | 0.34 | 0.00 | 0.51 | 0.32 | 0.35 | |
| Enterprise details | Number sold/transferred/retained at closing | 143 | 59 | 20 | 150 | 70 | 31 |
| Total forage area allocated to enterprise (ha) | 22.25 | 23.39 | 17.71 | 33.69 | 24.22 | 18 | |
| Number of weeks housed (weeks) | 23 | 19 | 18 | 21.48 | 19.87 | 16 | |
| Technical performance | Age of opening and incoming cattle (days) | 210 | 270 | 252 | 227 | 253 | 282 |
| Liveweight of opening and incoming cattle (kg/hd) | 266.21 | 291.16 | 276.62 | 288 | 284 | 304 | |
| Liveweight of sold/transferred/retained at closing (kg/hd) | 450.99 | 439.81 | 376.43 | 476 | 421 | 412 | |
| Weight produced per forage hectare (kg/ha) | 1,178 | 373 | 112 | 964 | 394 | 188 | |
| Non-forage feed fed DM (kg/hd) | 133.93 | 270.46 | 107.81 | 112 | 254 | 160 | |
| Harvested forage fed DM (kg/hd) | 404.15 | 577.74 | 795.12 | 540 | 735 | 807 | |
| Income (£/head of output) | Total income | 1,243.49 | 1,174.86 | 1,002.33 | 1,160.41 | 1,038.53 | 986 |
| Variable costs (£/head of output) | Vet and medicine | 6.68 | 15.68 | 11.38 | 7.12 | 12.12 | 16.23 |
| Bedding | 22.22 | 30.41 | 21.33 | 24.80 | 32.08 | 23.22 | |
| Total variable costs exc. feed | 732.66 | 862.65 | 782.15 | 744.57 | 762.66 | 777.24 | |
| Purchased feed including minerals | 21.02 | 66.88 | 33.49 | 32.29 | 52.39 | 53.43 | |
| Purchased forage | 3.32 | 2.33 | 2.90 | 1.52 | 8.81 | 5.92 | |
| Home-grown forage variable costs | 20.99 | 35.19 | 24.85 | 18.56 | 26.32 | 34.62 | |
| Total feed and forage costs | 54.53 | 113.56 | 67.19 | 57.33 | 108.24 | 103.65 | |
| Overheads (£/head of output) | Total labour | 57.60 | 123.11 | 271.16 | 65.18 | 105.67 | 262.25 |
| Total machinery and equipment | 39.41 | 103.80 | 154.44 | 38.85 | 80.67 | 149.25 | |
| Total property and energy costs | 15.90 | 38.23 | 52.07 | 21.83 | 28.60 | 57.36 | |
| Total administration costs | 14.45 | 28.85 | 68.82 | 19.54 | 23.43 | 56.88 | |
| Total overheads | 168.67 | 346.76 | 685.99 | 197.43 | 284.79 | 638.20 | |
| Cost of production and margins (£/head of output) | Full economic cost of production | 955.85 | 1,322.97 | 1,535.33 | 999.33 | 1,155.69 | 1,519.08 |
| Full economic net margin | 287.63 | -148.11 | -533.00 | 161.08 | -117.15 | -533.08 | |
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.
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.