More money from beef available on Coast

Press, 20 September 1985, Page 9

More money from beef available on Coast

Changes in beef management policies during the next 10 years could earn an extra $6.3 million for West Coast farmers, according to Mr Peter Packard, of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries at Auckland. He told the West Coast Farmers Conference that at present an estimated 390,000 stock units in beef cattle on the West Coast were expected to return SI4M this year. By 1995, the same number of stock units could return

over S2OM if farmers changed their beef management policies. That type of change would help farmers survive the uncertain economic climate which was facing pastoral farming in New Zealand, he said. Mr Packard presented the following gross margins for different management policies:

• Improvement within traditional breeds could boost income by 44 per cent, from $30.90 a stick unit to $44.60. This improvement includes lifting calving performance, mating yearling heifers, running efficent cows, and selection on profitability. • By finishing progeny at 20/22 months and using ralgro, productivity could be improved by 28 per cent to about $39 a stock unit. • Financial returns could be increased by over 50 per cent by moving into a planned crossbreeding programme. This can include a simple “two-way” crossbreeding system using a Hereford bull over Angus cows which will increase the gross margin to $46 a stock unit, or by adding a third breed such as a Friesian, the returns would lift to $4B a stock unit. The most profitable crossbreeding system was a crossbred cow used with a terminal sire (beef breed) which will increase returns to $55 a stock unit, representing a financial lift of 80 per cent over traditional breeds policies.

• By far the most profitable beef management policy is that of dairy beef/ bull beef, which involves rearing four-day-old Friesian bulls and taking them through to slaughter at 22 to 24 months of age. By paying $75 a calf, the gross margin would be $66 a stock unit.

Of the present 390,000 beef stock units on the West Coast, Mr Packard said 50 per-cent comprised traditional beef-breed weaners,

43 per cent was beef cattle farmed under finishing policies, 5 per cent was dairy beef, and only 2 per cent was in crossbred finishing. By 1995, Mr Packard suggested that only 10 per cent of stock units would be in traditional weaners, 20 per cent in dairy beef, and 45 per cent would be in crossbreeding finishing. He suggested also that yield grading could increase returns for crossbred carcases by 10 per cent. Compared with a. buyer resistance to crossbred calves several years ago, these animals were today fetching a premium as farmers realised they could boost their financial returns, said Mr Packard. This was particularly true for Friesian cross heifers which sold at a distinct premium as beef farmers replaced their traditional breeds with crossbred cows and then mated them with a terminal sire.

Far greater use must be made of the potential within the West Coast’s dairy farms to help increase beef production and the financial returns to sheep and beef farmers, said Mr Packard. Mr Keith Stewart, a farm advisory officer with the M.A.F. at Palmerston North, said farming Friesian bulls had a technological and economic efficiency that traditional beef farming could not match. The reliable summer and autumn pasture production on the West Coast provided an excellent opportunity for diversification in the dairy and beef industries.

In describing three bull finishing systems and their profitability (some of several used in the North Island) Mr Stewart said farmers should aim to grow beef rather than run cattle. Younger bulls were more efficient and systems running smaller animals growing quickly showed the highest levels of