Margaret Coombes, west Cork
“I run 35 odd suckler cows and sell the best bulls as weanlings and sell the rest as stores, keep some replacements.
“The winter/spring was dreadful, the prices were brilliant last year but I think nobody was prepared for the awful winter/spring we have had; for man and beast, it was terrible.
"The outlook is still fairly positive, I am also in SCEP and I have mixed feelings about that. Farming is hard enough, there is a lot of work in it and for suckler farmers the margins are tight... If things go wrong, it is pretty catastrophic.”
Cameron Shaw, Lockerbie, Scotland
“We finish cattle at home in Scotland; there is very little research as in-depth as this going on in Scotland, so I came over.
We buy stores around 12-14 months old at 400 kilos plus. We turn them out to grass and rotationally graze them.
We finish them around 22 months. This time last year we would have been around £7.20, now we are at £5.75, so it’s dropped £400-£600 a head. Stores in the spring were about £300-400 more to buy, at the moment anyone that bought cattle in January, February, March are set to lose a lot of money.
“The outlook is pretty depressing, because all sectors are in a bad way, not just cattle. It would be good to see some more support from government that would actually respect and value what we do. I think the most important thing is that the government in this country and in our own country are forcing us to abide by rules, to farm to standards and yet they quite happily will bring it in from abroad for far lesser standards.
"Ultimately, if you want us to produce cheap food, then make us produce it at the same standards as the stuff you're buying in.”
Declan Rafferty, Co Tyrone
“I run a suckler beef farm at home and do some dairy-beef on a grass-based spring calving and autumn calving system.
“Beef is still holding up fairly much for us. We're finishing last year's spring bulls at the minute and beef prices came back up a bit. Grass has been growing well for us; the weather has been unpredictable through the spring but we have still had a lot of grass growing and utilised.
“I came today to see how well you are doing it down here, to see if we can improve any more.”
Christey Hart, Co Kildare
“I am always looking for new ideas, that’s most important – you have to keep progressing. I have been farming all my life, it's more [a] hobby now because I run another business off the farm and we keep pedigree Aubracs and a commercial herd.
“The future of beef looks good at the moment, I would be slightly worried especially at the prices being paid for calves.”
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