EUROTIER: A View On Global Beef Production
GERMANY - The agri benchmark beef report has just been released in time for EuroTier 2010. The report is a global network of 20 countries comparing farm business infrastructure and performance and is part-coordinated by DLG. The report is a further aid in assessing the targets and requirements of EuroTier visitors.Total cost of beef production remain significantly lower in low-cost countries like Argentina and Brazil when compared with high-cost countries like the EU but the gap has narrowed in recent years. This is one of many findings summarised in the latest ‘Beef Report’ from the agri benchmark Beef and Sheep Network, a global of agricultural economists, producers and advisors.
To evaluate beef production (and since 2010 sheep production), its framework conditions and driving forces comprehensively, common methods must be developed and data need to be collected and analysed in a harmonised and comparative way. This is the main task of the group which is coordinated by the Johann Heinrich von Thünen-Institut (vTI) and the German Agricultural Society (DLG). The network comprises more than 20 countries representing approximately 75 per cent of global beef production and trade.
The Beef Report 2010 is the eighth issue since the start of the agri benchmark Beef and Sheep Network. It describes the reasons for particularly low and high costs of beef production and shows that high costs regularly coincide with high returns – but not with high profits. The various production systems display a different composition of costs but none of the production systems can be considered generally superior to the others.
Remaining direct payments for beef producers mainly consist of decoupled payments on whole farm level. The analysis further illustrates that cow-calf production has more to offer than ‘just’ the production of weaner calves. Sales form cull animals and breeding stock as well as cows for further finishing also belong to the total weight produced per cow and year. Time series obtained from feedlots show that they tend to be enormously productive but also subject to significant variations in profits over time.
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