With weanling sales taking place across the country, Teagasc Beef specialist, Aidan Murray, joins Catherine Egan on this week’s episode of the Beef Edge podcast to discuss a number of finishing budgets.

As no two farms are the same, Aidan advises that farmers should consider their input costs such as silage quality and concentrates, management of the beef system if it’s short or long, and stocking rates or fixed costs when completing their own beef finishing budgets.

Prices for weanlings are good this autumn, compared to previous years. Aidan highlights that they have increased by 7% across all categories of stock with heavier stock up by 12%. This is the first year prices have exceeded 2015 levels Aidan says, as prices were usually much lower than 2015 prices.

From the shorter keep winter finishing and bull systems to the longer autumn to autumn and weanling to beef systems, there are a number of systems Aidan discusses. In order to include a €50 margin on a winter finish system this winter, prices of €5/kg will be needed next Spring. The weanling to finishing budget takes a 280kg heifer and a 300kg weanling (steer) through to finish at 20 and 24 months.

As these animals won’t be finished until 2023, its extremely hard to predict the market and prices into the future, Aidan highlights. The autumn to autumn appears to be the most attainable in terms of achieving a margin.

Aidan also focuses on good silage quality and grassland management to reduce costs as much as possible with €4.26/KG required next autumn for a continental type animal to break even.

Finally, he discusses a number of key considerations for farmers selling weanlings in the coming weeks.

For more episodes and information covered on the Beef Edge, visit the show page at:

https://www.teagasc.ie/thebeefedge

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