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Beef cost of production: Suckler herds
We present costing and performance insights for beef production suckler herds, using Farmbench data.
What does the 2022/23 season tell us?
Suckler herds for the 2022/23 season recorded in Farmbench saw slight reductions in total cost of production for the middle 50%.
Feed and forage costs saw significant rises for the middle 50%. This was not the case for the top and bottom 25% performers in Farmbench. Although the top 25% performers for sucklers saw feed and forage costs lower overall (per cow put to the bull), they did spend more on homegrown forage variable costs in 2022/23. In general, this group have more forage area allocated to the enterprise – a trend we saw the previous year too.
Overheads are a key differential between the top 25%, middle 50% and bottom 25% − as seen over the previous season.
All Farmbench users for suckler herds in 2022/23 experienced an improved year in terms of full economic net margin. Though for the middle 50% and bottom 25% performers in Farmbench, net margins remain negative in 2022/23 (per cow put to the bull).
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.
Beef suckler herds ranked by total economic margin, per cow to the bull
| Suckler herd - cost of production | 2021/22 (Calving 2022) | 2022/23 (Calving 2023) | Change YOY for middle 50% | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top 25% | Middle 50% | Bottom 25% | Top 25% | Middle 50% | Bottom 25% | |||
| KPIs | Cost of production per calf (£/kg) | 2.34 | 3.87 | 8.10 | 2.19 | 3.77 | 5.81 | -3% |
| 200 day weaned calf weight per kg of cow bulled (%) | 34.78 | 34.21 | 33.83 | 39.05 | 34.03 | 32.69 | -1% | |
| Age at first calving (months) | 24 | 27 | 29 | 25 | 27 | 30 | 0% | |
| Enterprise detail | Number of cows/heifers put to bull | 136 | 73 | 39 | 128 | 82 | 40 | 12% |
| Total forage area allocated to enterprise (ha) | 137 | 75 | 55 | 120 | 77 | 55 | 2% | |
| Number of weeks housed (weeks) | 16 | 20 | 18 | 15 | 21 | 18 | 5% | |
| Technical performance | Cow to bull ratio | 33 | 29 | 22 | 30 | 29 | 24 | 0% |
| Cows/heifers scanned in-calf (%) | 93 | 90 | 95 | 93 | 90 | 92 | 0% | |
| Calves died from birth to weaning per 100 cows/heifers put to bull (%) | 1.86 | 2.31 | 4.24 | 2.40 | 2.10 | 1.06 | -9% | |
| Calves reared per 100 cows/heifers put to bull (%) | 88.41 | 86.56 | 89.15 | 89.17 | 84.60 | 88.12 | -2% | |
| Daily liveweight gain for weaned calves (kg/day) | 1.06 | 1.05 | 0.88 | 1.14 | 1.07 | 1.06 | 2% | |
| Weight produced per forage hectare (kg/ha) | 186 | 176 | 109 | 215 | 191 | 134 | 9% | |
| Non-forage feed fed DM (kg/hd) | 130 | 147 | 43 | 55 | 177 | 155 | 20% | |
| Harvested forage fed DM (kg/hd) | 1,133 | 1,599 | 2,419 | 907 | 1,100 | 1,222 | -31% | |
| Creep feed fed (kg/hd) | 11 | 77 | 111 | 25 | 72 | 0 | -7% | |
| Income (£/cow put to the bull) | Total income | 670 | 665 | 515 | 763 | 658 | 606 | -1% |
| Variable costs (£/cow put to the bull) | Vet and medicine | 45.15 | 48.38 | 49.47 | 36.36 | 40.17 | 47.63 | -17% |
| Bedding | 38.54 | 49.84 | 61.53 | 24.76 | 59.09 | 49.56 | 19% | |
| Total variable costs excluding feed | 107.06 | 171.47 | 127.60 | 113.37 | 141.66 | 156.45 | -17% | |
| Purchased feed including minerals | 36.99 | 47.37 | 48.87 | 21.69 | 57.06 | 35.28 | 20% | |
| Purchased forage | 13.02 | 21.92 | 106.74 | 2.90 | 31.89 | 15.98 | 45% | |
| Homegrown forage variable costs | 28.19 | 62.96 | 95.28 | 38.68 | 91.59 | 67.31 | 45% | |
| Total feed and forage costs | 79.36 | 145.05 | 253.25 | 67.96 | 189.37 | 131.41 | 31% | |
| Overhead costs (£/cow put to the bull) | Total labour | 134.15 | 224.13 | 446.96 | 127.77 | 198.52 | 488.23 | -11% |
| Total administration costs | 33.11 | 53.19 | 106.36 | 38.54 | 45.14 | 74.73 | -15% | |
| Total machinery and equipment | 89.30 | 184.97 | 421.99 | 98.74 | 186.04 | 296.18 | 1% | |
| Total property and energy costs | 39.57 | 66.36 | 136.77 | 31.66 | 64.61 | 105.87 | -3% | |
| Total overheads | 412.26 | 698.09 | 1426.93 | 430.27 | 637.35 | 1261.87 | -9% | |
| Full cost of production and net margin | Full economic cost of production (£/cow put to the bull) | 598.68 | 1,014.61 | 1,807.78 | 611.60 | 968.39 | 1,549.74 | -5% |
| Full economic net margin (£/cow put to the bull) | 71.65 | -349.81 | -1,292.82 | 151.05 | -310.88 | -943.97 | £38.93 per cow put to the bull | |
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 with 2023 lambing, and calving for autumn 2022 and spring 2023.
For 2022/23 insights, the Farmbench tool gathered data from a total of 86 farms across England, and there were 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% performers.