Brian Reidy: Beef finishing efficiency to optimise your returns
Achieving a margin in this economy will take a bit of planning and management
A few weeks ago I wrote about getting cattle finished off grass. For most slaughtering stock at 22 to 24 months, it will however involve a finishing period indoors. With some recent slippage in factory prices and input costs still high, achieving a margin will take a bit of planning and management.
The effect of feed efficiency conversion on profitability in beef finishing is even greater with the current and short- to medium-term concentrate costs. This is outlined by the fact that the economic impact of an improvement in feed efficiency has the potential to be much greater than the same increase in Average Daily Gain. In times of high feed cost, optimisation, rather than maximisation, of performance is a more economically achievable target.
