Comment: Beef industry faces chicken and egg dilemma

​The Stormont Executive’s decision to ring fence a frozen farm support budget for Northern Ireland means, in effect, that the help available at farm level will decrease in real terms. This is an extremely disappointing vista.

Meanwhile, the beef industry will be expected to ramp up the levels of efficiency it achieves dramatically. And, of course, there is no guarantee that market prices will rise to compensate for any of this. Yes, cattle prices are strong at present. But there is no guarantee of this momentum being the long term.

I would argue strongly that livestock farmers must have some assurance regarding their attainment of a financially sustainable future, if they are to meet the myriad environmental and other challenges coming at them over the coming years.

Even the most cursory perusal of the latest benchmarking figures will confirm that every beef producer remains reliant on the Single Farm Payment, in order to make a living. This salient fact must be addressed by the powers-that-be within the farming industry as they strive to settle on the best future support deal for agriculture in Northern Ireland.

It goes without saying that livestock producers deserve a much better return on their investment.

But farmers should not be lulled into a false sense of security regarding future prospects on the back of predictions which point to a further erosion in the UK’s potential to produce beef over the coming years. In reality, imports – cheap or expensive – will make up for the shortfall.

Meanwhile, economists continue to point out that in a decoupled scenario the lower performing farms must increase their production efficiency if they are to remain in beef. A price rise alone will not be enough to deliver a reasonable income in the current and future climates

However, the worrying fact remains that a significant number of livestock farmers in Northern Ireland do not have a detailed handle on their operating cost base. The most obvious way round this problem comes in the shape of the CAFRE benchmarking programme. It costs nothing to get on board, yet the scheme offers a host of opportunities for farmers to gauge the efficiencies they are achieving and, thereafter, identify possible ways forward.