Beef cost of production: Stores

We present costing and performance insights for beef production youngstock stores only, using Farmbench data.

What does the 2022/23 season tell us?

For the 2022/23 season, the Farmbench figures show a higher cost of production overall for the middle 50% for youngstock stores and finishers.

Rises in cost of production were in most part the result of significant rises in forage and feed costs, as well as climbing overhead costs. However, for the top 25% performers for youngstock stores, cost of production saw a slight reduction on the year down to variable costs (excluding feed and forage).

A higher total income for 2022/23 outweighed the rises in cost of production for a slightly improved full economic net margin for the middle 50%. However, overall, full economic net margins remain negative for the middle 50% and bottom 25% youngstock, for both stores and finishing.

Characteristics of top and bottom performing beef and sheep farms

Our study uses a statistical examination of the Farm Business Survey and a case study analysis to identify the key actions of top performers. The study also offers a list of considerations for ways in which beef and sheep farm businesses can improve.

Read our study about traits of top performing farms

Youngstock stores only ranked by total economic margin, per liveweight kg of output

Youngstock stores only - cost of production		2021/22 (Calving 2022)			2022/23 (Calving 2023)			Change YOY for middle 50%
Youngstock stores only - cost of production		Top 25%	Middle 50%	Bottom 25%	Top 25%	Middle 50%	Bottom 25%	Change YOY for middle 50%
KPIs	Cost of production (£/kg)	2.27	2.48	3.50	1.90	2.71	3.69	9%
	Daily liveweight gain (kg/day)	0.62	0.73	0.48	0.71	0.73	0.44	0%
	Mortality (%)	0.63	0.45	1.04	0.37	0.20	0.00	-55%
Enterprise details	Number sold/transferred/retained at closing	127	89	38	180	60	37	-33%
	Total forage area allocated to enterprise (ha)	51	32	20	28	19	14	-41%
	Number of weeks housed (weeks)	20	20	8	22	19	23	-4%
Technical performance	Age of opening and incoming cattle (days)	249	264	275	221	237	271	-10%
	Liveweight of opening and incoming cattle (kg/hd)	323.89	298.91	275.35	274.32	270.33	329.64	-10%
	Liveweight of sold/transferred/retained at closing (kg/hd)	503.09	431.66	422.01	473.66	407.82	395.23	-6%
	Non-forage feed fed DM (kg/hd)	75.79	203.31	94.10	127.30	315.52	213.99	55%
	Harvested forage fed DM (kg/hd)	839.84	1,051.96	605.40	375.19	608.16	842.75	-42%
	Weight produced per forage hectare (kg/ha)	441.26	367.91	274.35	1,273.00	436.00	176.00	19%
Income (£/kg)	Total income	2.47	2.22	2.30	2.10	2.50	2.36	13%
Variable costs (£/kg)	Vet and medicine	0.02	0.02	0.04	0.01	0.03	0.05	73%
	Bedding	0.08	0.07	0.04	0.03	0.08	0.08	8%
	Total variable costs excluding feed	1.67	1.73	1.66	1.40	1.69	2.10	-2%
	Purchased feed including minerals	0.08	0.09	0.04	0.08	0.13	0.24	42%
	Purchased forage	0.00	0.02	0.04	0.00	0.03	0.02	35%
	Homegrown forage variable costs	0.03	0.02	0.10	0.04	0.09	0.08	321%
	Total feed and forage costs	0.11	0.17	0.22	0.13	0.36	0.35	114%
Overhead costs (£/kg)	Total labour	0.17	0.25	0.74	0.11	0.22	0.46	-12%
	Total administration costs	0.06	0.05	0.15	0.03	0.05	0.10	7%
	Total machinery and equipment	0.08	0.11	0.40	0.08	0.23	0.29	103%
	Total property and energy costs	0.07	0.06	0.15	0.03	0.05	0.13	-22%
	Total overheads	0.49	0.58	1.62	0.38	0.66	1.24	14%
Full cost of production and net margin	Full economic cost of production (£/kg)	2.27	2.48	3.50	1.90	2.71	3.69	9%
Full cost of production and net margin	Full economic net margin (£/kg)	0.21	-0.26	-1.21	0.20	-0.21	-1.33	£ 0.05 per kg liveweight

View table as PDF: Youngstock stores only ranked by total economic margin

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 2022/23 production year is associated to 2023 lambing, and calving for autumn 2022 and spring 2023.

For 2022/23 insights, the tool gathered data from a total of 86 farms across England, similar to 81 in the 2021/22 season.

This 2022/23 total included 57 suckler herd, 41 finishing beef and 35 store beef enterprises, and 61 breeding flock and 34 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%.

Back to Beef: Cost of production and performance