Of course, figures are needed to support these comments, which are based on a cents per kilogram of drymatter (DM) gross margin.
If we take the gross income less direct cost divided by the feed consumed we get to cents/kg DM. This is the acid test for comparing enterprises. You have to include interest on stock capital to get a fair comparison between enterprises because enterprises differ in terms of stock capital.
As a farmer, you grow drymatter and it’s your decision as to which class of stock you use to convert it to profit. Knowing how stock classes perform is important.
A sheep flock doing 135%, no hogget mating, 16.8kg crypts and 15.4kg ewe lambs is my average hill-country operation.
On the breeding cow front, we have 88% calving, first calved at two-years, and producing 268kg steers and 240kg heifers. Two reasonably typical examples of what you might find.
The detail is shown in Tables 2 and 3 – income includes pool payments recently announced by Alliance Group, whose figures I’ve used over the years in this ongoing analysis because of my Southland base.
It’s apparent that the breeding cows are the equal of sheep. Take that 20% quality factor into account, and the other advantages mentioned, and the situation looks very good.
A summary is shown in Table 1 of all the enterprises in the analysis. Space doesn’t allow full publication of all aspects of the analysis but I’m glad to provide detail if requested.
So, if you managed to resist getting out of breeding cows, well done and enjoy the rewards.
• Contact Graham Butcher at gbutcher@ispnz.co.nz, or call him on 03 208 9956 or 0274 377 287.
