Beef Businesses Research Articles

ANALISIS RANTAI PASOK DAGING SAPI DI KECAMATAN KERUMUTAN KABUPATEN PELALAWAN PROVINSI RIAU

Beef is a source of animal protein needed by the public. The delicious taste of meat is a commodity much in demand by consumers. This research aims to analyze: 1) Supply chain mechanisms related to product flow, information flow, and financial flow in beef businesses, and 2) the Efficiency of beef supply chain marketing. This research uses a survey method. The data were analyzed descriptively qualitatively and quantitatively. The result showed: 1) The beef supply chain in Kerumutan District, Pelalawan Regency starts from cattle farmers to cattle traders, then cattle traders to retailers, then retailers sell beef to consumers. The flow of information starts from the farmer to the cattle trader, communication is carried out by telephone or SMS related to the existing cattle stock and the prevailing prices in the market, then from the cattle trader to the retailer, communication is carried out by telephone regarding the existing cattle stock and when to deliver, then from retailers to consumers, the information provided by retailers is the selling price of beef, while the financial flow stars from the consumer to the farmer for the payment obtained by each link in the chain involved and the payment system is in cash. 2) The beef marketing margin is Rp 30,000,- Farmers’ share is 76.9%, and marketing efficiency is 3.77% so it can be said that the distribution of the beef supply chain in Kerumutan District, Pelalawan Regency, Riau Province is efficient.

Achieving drought resilience in the grazing lands of northern Australia: preparing, responding and recovering

Northern Australia is characterised by high rainfall variability and extended droughts that challenge sustainable and profitable management of grazing properties. To achieve drought resilience, emphasis must be placed on supporting livestock managers to prepare for drought as well as implementing appropriate drought response and recovery actions. Here we describe insights and learnings gained from working with scientists, industry development and extension officers, and property managers, to enable more profitable and drought resilient extensive livestock production systems across northern Australia. We provide examples from the modelling and analysis of hypothetical grazing properties representative of enterprises across northern Australia. To prepare for drought, we principally propose the application of the farm-management economics framework to identify investment strategies which can improve enterprise resilience through building wealth over the longer term. The critical first step in drought preparedness for beef businesses was the implementation of management strategies to achieve the optimal herd structure, steer sale age, and breeder body condition. Other key strategies to improve profitability across northern Australia were (1) addressing a phosphorus deficiency for cattle through effective supplementation and (2) establishing adapted perennial legume-grass pastures to improve steer nutrition. In addition, we identify the benefits of working closely with livestock managers and industry to gain adoption of proven technologies that effectively improve decision-making capacity and the drought preparedness of extensive livestock production systems. The usefulness of the farm-management economics approach to assess the relative value of alternative tactical destocking and restocking decisions during drought response and recovery is also discussed. These latter analyses can highlight important differences between options in terms of future profit and cash flow, as well as the ability to rapidly return the property to the most profitable herd structure and age of turnoff, with consideration of production and financial risk. Additionally, integrating pasture growth models with herd or flock economic models can provide insights into the effects, on profitability and sustainability, of alternative destocking and later restocking strategies over the longer term. Combined, the farm-management economics framework approach can support more informed decision-making by livestock producers and hence enable more profitable and drought resilient extensive livestock production systems. However, achieving drought resilience in the grazing lands of northern Australia will require emphasis on drought preparation, in addition to appropriate action in response and recovery phases of drought. Key to this approach is increasing the adoption of strategies that enhance drought preparedness.

Droughts and farms’ financial performance: a farm‐level study in New Zealand

We quantify the impacts of droughts in New Zealand on the profitability of dairy, sheep and beef farms using a comprehensive administrative database of all farms in New Zealand. For dairy farms, we found that drought events have positive impacts on dairy farms’ revenue and profit in the year of the drought. This effect is most likely attributable to drought‐induced increases in the export price of milk solids, as New Zealand is the market maker in this global market and almost all domestic dairy production is exported. All of these quantified impacts, however, are not very large, suggesting that, at this point in time, droughts have a fairly moderate impact on New Zealand dairy and sheep–beef businesses.

Rangeland profitability in the northern Gulf region of Queensland: understanding beef business complexity and the subsequent impact on land resource management and environmental outcomes

The farm-gate value of extensive beef production from the northern Gulf region of Queensland, Australia, is ~$150 million annually. Poor profitability and declining equity are common issues for most beef businesses in the region. The beef industry relies primarily on native pasture systems and studies continue to report a decline in the condition and productivity of important land types in the region. Governments and Natural Resource Management groups are investing significant resources to restore landscape health and productivity. Fundamental community expectations also include broader environmental outcomes such as reducing beef industry greenhouse gas emissions. Whole-of-business analysis results are presented from 18 extensive beef businesses (producers) to highlight the complex social and economic drivers of management decisions that impact on the natural resource and environment. Business analysis activities also focussed on improving enterprise performance. Profitability, herd performance and greenhouse emission benchmarks are documented and discussed.

Optimising beef business performance in northern Australia: what can 30 years of commercial innovation teach us?

This paper evaluates three decades of innovation by a leading beef producer in the Barkly region of the Northern Territory. The case study represents a rare published analysis of changes in production, greenhouse gas emissions and land condition metrics for a commercial livestock business. Thirty years ago the property was under-developed and had poor livestock productivity by today’s standards. Between 1981 and 2013, the business has increased carrying capacity through water point development, and achieved a >50% increase in herd size, a 46% improvement in weaning rate, an 82% reduction in breeder mortality rate and an improvement in land condition. Annual liveweight turn-off has increased from 75 kg to 128 kg per adult equivalent (AE) carried. All of this has been achieved while using recommended stocking rates. In contrast, two additional analyses reflecting other management approaches being taken by some north Australian beef businesses resulted in poor productivity, economic, emissions and land condition outcomes. Total greenhouse gas emissions have increased on the case study property since 1981 as a result of increasing herd size. However, the intensity of emissions per tonne of liveweight sold has declined by 43% due to the improvements in livestock productivity. The potential for generating carbon revenue from this emissions intensity improvement was explored. We found that for >95% of northern beef enterprises, current project transaction costs would entirely negate carbon revenue at a carbon price of < $25 tCO2e–1. At $5 tCO2e–1, the minimum herd size needed to cover the project transaction costs would be in excess of 35 000 AE. Although substantial carbon profits appear unlikely at present, the management practices evaluated can deliver substantial economic, emissions and land condition benefits to individual businesses and the wider industry. The paper concludes that cost-effective investment to concurrently increase herd size and livestock productivity per head, in conjunction with safe stocking rate management, is a proven path to economic and environmental sustainability in the north Australian beef industry.

Use of business analysis in beef businesses to direct management practice change for climate adaptation outcomes

Beef businesses in northern Australia are facing increased pressure to be productive and profitable with challenges such as climate variability and poor financial performance over the past decade. Declining terms of trade, limited recent gains in on-farm productivity, low profit margins under current management systems and current climatic conditions will leave little capacity for businesses to absorb climate change-induced losses. In order to generate a whole-of-business focus towards management change, the Climate Clever Beef project in the Maranoa-Balonne region of Queensland trialled the use of business analysis with beef producers to improve financial literacy, provide a greater understanding of current business performance and initiate changes to current management practices. Demonstration properties were engaged and a systematic approach was used to assess current business performance, evaluate impacts of management changes on the business and to trial practices and promote successful outcomes to the wider industry. Focus was concentrated on improving financial literacy skills, understanding the business’ key performance indicators and modifying practices to improve both business productivity and profitability. To best achieve the desired outcomes, several extension models were employed: the ‘group facilitation/empowerment model’, the ‘individual consultant/mentor model’ and the ‘technology development model’. Providing producers with a whole-of-business approach and using business analysis in conjunction with on-farm trials and various extension methods proved to be a successful way to encourage producers in the region to adopt new practices into their business, in the areas of greatest impact. The areas targeted for development within businesses generally led to improvements in animal performance and grazing land management further improving the prospects for climate resilience.

Climate Clever Beef: options to improve business performance and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in northern Australia

The Rangeland Journal – Climate Clever Beef special issue examines options for the beef industry in northern Australia to contribute to the reduction in global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and to engage in the carbon economy. Relative to its gross value (A$5 billion), the northern beef industry is responsible for a sizable proportion of national reportable GHG emissions (8–10%) through enteric methane, savanna burning, vegetation clearing and land degradation. The industry occupies large areas of land and has the potential to impact the carbon cycle by sequestering carbon or reducing carbon loss. Furthermore, much of the industry is currently not achieving its productivity potential, which suggests that there are opportunities to improve the emissions intensity of beef production. Improving the industry’s GHG emissions performance is important for its environmental reputation and may benefit individual businesses through improved production efficiency and revenue from the carbon economy. The Climate Clever Beef initiative collaborated with beef businesses in six regions across northern Australia to better understand the links between GHG emissions and carbon stocks, land condition, herd productivity and profitability. The current performance of businesses was measured and alternate management options were identified and evaluated. Opportunities to participate in the carbon economy through the Australian Government’s Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF) were also assessed. The initiative achieved significant producer engagement and collaboration resulting in practice change by 78 people from 35 businesses, managing more than 1 272 000 ha and 132 000 cattle. Carbon farming opportunities were identified that could improve both business performance and emissions intensity. However, these opportunities were not without significant risks, trade-offs and limitations particularly in relation to business scale, and uncertainty in carbon price and the response of soil and vegetation carbon sequestration to management. This paper discusses opportunities for reducing emissions, improving emission intensity and carbon sequestration, and outlines the approach taken to achieve beef business engagement and practice change. The paper concludes with some considerations for policy makers.

Comparison of stocking methods for beef production in northern Australia: seasonal diet quality and composition

Managing and measuring the grazing and nutrition of cattle are required to improve the productivity and profitability of beef businesses in northern Australia. The quality and composition of the diet selected by cattle grazing in three stocking methods (continuous, extensive rotation and intensive (cell) rotation) on nine commercial properties in Queensland were estimated using near infrared reflectance spectroscopy analyses of fresh faeces; 585 faecal samples were analysed between 2005 and 2009. Sites were in two regions (north and south Queensland) and on two vegetation communities, namely brigalow (Acacia harpophylla F. Muell. ex Benth.) on clay soils and eucalypts on light-textured soil types. Pastures were dominated by perennial sown exotic grass species, predominantly Cenchrus ciliaris L. (buffel grass) at five sites and Urochloa mosambicensis (Hack.) (Sabi grass) at one site, and by native perennial tussock grasses at three sites. Seasonal profiles of dietary crude protein, dry matter digestibility, faecal nitrogen concentration, proportion of non-grass, ratio of crude protein to digestibility and an estimate of liveweight gain are presented for each stocking method. Overall, dietary crude protein, digestibility, faecal nitrogen, the crude protein : digestibility ratio and liveweight gain were significantly higher for animals grazed continuously, with short rest periods, than for animals in extensive or intensive rotations. There was a significant interaction between stocking method and pasture growing conditions, measured as a simulated growth index, for dietary crude protein and faecal nitrogen. There was no difference between stocking methods during periods when the index was <0.2, indicating no pasture growth, but during periods of active growth (index >0.5), crude protein and faecal nitrogen were higher with continuous grazing than in the extensive and intensive rotations. For cattle producers considering alternative stocking methods, the results suggest they can obtain similar ecological responses under any of the three methods and diet quality will be higher during the pasture growing period in continuously grazed pastures.

The value of research: using the Impact Tool to evaluate realised and anticipated benefits of the Cooperative Research Centre for Beef Genetic Technologies

The Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Beef Genetic Technologies operated for its third successive 7-year term from July 2005 to June 2012. It developed new genetic and genomic technologies and non-genetic ‘products’ (practices, processes, tools and technologies) to improve profitability, productivity, animal welfare and responsible resource use of Australian beef businesses. In this paper we assess how well the third-term Beef CRC met its objectives, at the end of its funding period, using the Impact Tool software package developed by the CRC Program of the Commonwealth Government. The Impact Tool generates two commonly used measures of return on investment: the net present value (NPV) and the benefit : cost ratio (BCR). The NPV, the sum of discounted benefits minus the sum of discounted costs, was $233.2 m, when evaluated over the period 2005/06–2020/21. The BCR, the sum of discounted benefits divided by the sum of discounted costs, was 2.94, over the same period. Thus on both measures, investing in the Beef CRC is expected to have been profitable. We conclude by noting that the value of the Impact Tool is not only for ex-ante and ex-post evaluation of the impacts of particular technologies, but it also provides a very effective tool for RD&E project planning.

Achieving adoption and innovation in Australia's beef industry

Beef CRC uses industry value-add and impact as the guiding principle to identify the most appropriate ‘Path to Adoption’ for each one of the practices, tools and technologies it develops. This approach recognises that, regardless of the product type or the method of commercialisation, all Beef CRC’s decisions aimed at achieving commercialisation, utilisation, and/or adoption are designed to achieve and demonstrate maximum value for Australian beef businesses. This is achieved by customising commercialisation approaches to ensure that (1) all Beef CRC technologies are specifically designed to maximise industry adoption and utilisation and (2) all Beef CRC processes aiming to achieve industry adoption and innovation are specifically designed and implemented for that purpose. This paper presents case studies outlining the different approaches used by Beef CRC to maximise adoption, innovation and impact of different product types and different processes (or ‘delivery vehicles’) to achieve demonstrable adoption and impact of complex knowledge-based technologies among the tens of thousands of small-to-medium beef enterprises located throughout Australia.

An analysis of the risks and benefits of beef intensification

Dairy beef enterprises are an intensification option for traditional sheep and beef businesses. Intensification largely refers to lifting soil fertility, the establishment of internal fencing and associated water supply, so that forage can be allocated with increasing precision. This precision enables higher stocking rates as a result of increasing pasture production, pasture quality, and intake leading to greater production of beef. Two beef finishing systems were compared; one a traditional system and the other a Technosystem. Using average parameter analyses, intensification was shown to pay at market returns of $2.50/kg of carcass weight under the production assumptions we used. The Technosystem showed significant returns on investment lifting the return on total capital invested in the farm business from 4.9% in a traditional system to 8%. We used two software programs; RANGEPACK HerdEcon and Stockpol™ to assess the risks a farmer would face when converting to a Technosystem. The two risks assessed were the variable climate of the East Coast and market prices. While these parameters vary considerably, the probability of doing better than the traditional system is high (84.7%). This declined rapidly if final stocking rates were less than 4 bulls per hectare with the probability of doing better reducing to 58% at 3.5 bulls per hectare. We also showed that the variability in cash surpluses is reduced by development with the coeffiecient of variation for the traditional system at 126% compared with the Technosystem of 95%. Variability does have a moderate effect on reducing overall profitability (13.4%), most of which (9.3%) is caused by markets rather than climate. Our conclusion is that beef intensification provides a reliable means of increasing net worth and cash surpluses. Keywords: beef intensification, bull finishing, climatic variability, financial analysis, price variability, risk, Technosystems