Calf price a concern in Cavan

The Teagasc Dairy Beef 500 programme has 15 dairy beef farms situated around the country, with programme manager Alan Dillon and specialist advisers Tommy Cox and Fergal Maguire tasked with working alongside these farmers and their local advisers to improve technical efficiency and, in turn, profitability.

One of the main targets of the Dairy Beef 500 programme is to achieve a net margin of €500/ha excluding land and labour costs.

The programme is following the stories of farmers on different land types and different finishing systems. One of these farmers is Charlie Smyth, who lives just outside Virginia in Co Cavan.

Having finished a degree in agriculture in UCD in 2020, Charlie came home to full-time farm and wanted to put his own stamp on things.

And that’s when the dairy beef enterprise was introduced to the farm.

Many farmers who have ventured down the dairy beef route will associate with Charlie’s story. His first purchase was Friesian bull calves.

They were cheap to purchase but had poor grades, long finishing times and low carcase weights and he moved on to beef sired calves, making a point to stay away from any Jersey genetics in the dams of the calves he was buying.

The land type is typical of Cavan land, being a mixture of free-draining and drumlin soils. It’s also a fragmented holding with five different blocks which adds to labour requirements of moving stock around the different blocks.

A poultry enterprise is run alongside the dairy beef on the farm. Charlie purchases 100 dairy calves each spring from a mixture of farms and marts around the country.

“We were a little late getting to the market in 2025 and some farmers who we would have normally bought off had their calves sold. The good trade for calves probably affected this a bit,” he said.

“We then went to marts and have actually bought some reared calves in the last few weeks. They were a lot more expensive than I thought they would be, but when you’re in a system you have to keep going.

“We would prefer to be buying on farm but we don’t mind buying in marts either. We have a good health protocol in place around vaccination so that reduces the chances of any problems with bought in calves.”

A mix of breeds is purchased on the farm, with traditional breeds like Aberdeen Angus and Hereford along with some Belgian Blues.

A batch of Fleckvieh calves were purchased in 2024 which Charlie has been very happy with. Calves are up €150/head this year with €300 paid for some calves at three to four weeks of age and up to €600/head paid for reared calves.

Heifers finished at 21-24 months and bullocks finished at 23-27 months.

Charlie places a big emphasis on calf quality and has moved to high Commercial Beef Value (CBV) index calves having seen what they can do on the farm.

Physical and financial performance

Table 1 outlines the physical performance on the farm. Charlie is currently farming just over 50ha of grass. This is down from 60ha in 2022 where rented ground was dropped.

Dropping the rented ground and maintaining animal numbers has meant Charlie has been able to increase his stocking rate from 1.66 LU/ha in 2022 to 2.0 LU/ha in 2025.

Liveweight output per hectare, a key determinant of any beef system, has risen from 746kg/ha in 2022 to 997kg/ha in 2025, with a further increase to 1,050kg/ha predicted for 2026.

This increase in liveweight output is down to an increase in carcase weights over the last number of years and also an increased number of animals finished on the farm.

Table 2 outlines the financial performance for the farm. Gross margin has more than doubled on the farm in the last three years, rising from €639/ha in 2022 to €1,140/ha in 2025, with a massive increase of over €800/ha predicted in 2025 to bring gross margin to a predicted €1,951/Ha.

Variable costs spiked in 2023 as a result of higher priced inputs and higher concentrate feeding due to a tough year at grass in 2023. Variable costs are predicted to increase slightly in 2025 due to extra concentrates being fed to avail of a high beef price earlier in the year.

The farm’s net margin has seen a steady increase since 2022, rising from €154/ha in 2022 to €518/ha in 2024 (excluding support payments). The net margin for 2025 is predicted to hit €1151/ha meaning the 50ha farm will deliver €58,378 excluding any land and labour costs.

These figures are a real-farm scenario and show what is realistically achievable for a well-run dairy calf to beef farm hitting all performance targets.

Calf Price

There was a lot of discussion around calf price with a few farmers asking questions as to where margins will be when this year’s calf prices are factored into dairy beef budgets.

Teagasc has completed some work on this and Table 4 outlines the impact that different beef prices and different calf prices have on profitability of dairy beef systems.

The figures in Table 4 refer to a 20-month dairy beef heifer finishing system. At a beef price of €6/kg and a calf price of €350/head, the margin drops to -€20/head so Charlie would be losing €2,000 if these prices were factored in.

At the other end of the scale, if beef price was at €7.50/kg and calf prices were back at €200/head, the margin per head would increase to €505/head or just over €63,000 for Charlie’s farm.

Dairy Beef 500 programme manager Alan Dillon said: “Farmers need to be careful around calf prices with some of the prices paid this spring being questionable when you do the figures on it. You need to have a stopping point and know what’s within your budget to pay for calves.”

Calf Management

There is a high emphasis placed on the health of calves with a vaccination programme in place for all calves purchased on the farm. The programme is workin, with less than 1% mortality on Charlie’s farm in 2024.

On arrival calves are fed electrolytes and then trained onto teat feeders. A slated shed is used to rear calves with slats bedded with straw.

A mesh product is used to stop the straw from going down through the slats and tank. Calves receive two shots of pneumonia vaccine during the rearing phase and are offered concentrates from the first week on the farm.

Calves also receive a coccidiosis treatment indoors and receive another treatment for coccidiosis when outdoors. The calf rearing process is kept as simple as possible.

“We aim to have calves fed in one hour 20 minutes. We mix the milk in a milk cart and move along the pens to feed. I’m a big believer in loads of straw in pens. For me it’s the cheapest form of medicine. Once out at grass, calves receive a first dose in May/June and dosing is based on faecal sampling after that,” he explained.

Teagasc beef specialist and Dairy Beef 500 programme adviser Tommy Cox gave an overview of Charlie’s carcase weights for the last two years.

Bullocks averaged just under 300kg carcase weight in 2024 with heifers coming in at 260kg carcase weight. Table 5 outlines Charlie’s target weights for different stages of his production cycle. His target is to have heifers at 400kg at the beginning of July and heifers weighed in the first week of July this year came in at 425kg, so he is ahead of target.

It’s been a good grazing year in the north of the country so far with rain and heat coming at the right time and finishing stock very settled and putting on good weight.

Tommy Cox said: “The minimum weight for introducing concentrates to dairy beef heifers is 450kg. Going in earlier could lead to animals getting fat at a lower weight, reducing carcase values.”

Charlie’s average grade across all types of stock on the farm has been an O= over the last two years. That means he’s getting between an 18 cent/kg and 24 cent/kg penalty on the grid. That’s no different to any dairy beef farm but should be factored in when doing budgets.

The in spec quality assurance payment of 20 cent/kg and any breed bonuses sometimes cancel out this reduction. Carcase values in 2024 ranged from €1,486/head for beef heifers to €1,597/head for beef bullocks. Carcase values are expected to see a big lift in 2025 with an increased beef price.

Comment

Last week’s walk was a great example of what can be achieved from a well-run dairy calf to beef system.

Charlie Smyth is a young farmer eager to push his system as far as he can in terms of trying to buy the best genetics, optimising weight gains through good health management and working closely with Teagasc on the finances of the system.

He’s not finished yet, with his next focus being on grassland management through measuring and budgeting, something he feels will help increase his weight gains and reduce his costs.

Calf prices and where they have gone to in 2025 is concerning though for dairy beef systems.

Yes this month’s beef price is ahead of last year’s by just over €2/kg but calf prices have increased a lot as well.

This has been driven by a huge demand from exporters but farmers rearing calves have been caught in that battle with some giving €200-€300/head more compared to last year.

In some cases, the calf price has gone from 10% of finished price to 20% of the finished price which will hit dairy beef margins.

Charlie talked about the relationship between him and his calf suppliers being important and that some didn’t increase the price of calves as much as they could in 2025 because they want him back next year. It’s an interesting angle and shows a long-term view from the dairy farmers he is dealing with.

Let’s hope big money for calves for export is here to stay but if it tapers back, having a farmer to buy calves every year may be more important than a big price one year.

Farm Facts

Farm Size: 50.72ha.

Land type: mixture of free draining and low lying drumlin soils.

Farm System: dairy calf to beef with poultry unit.

Breeds: Aberdeen Angus, Hereford, Belgian Blue and Fleckvieh.

Finishing age: bullocks: 23-27 months; heifers: 21-24 months.