Stocktake Report 2013/14 November 26, 2014 12:00 am EBLEX has released its latest benchmarking figures for English beef and sheep enterprises in the 2014 Stocktake Report. These relate to the year ending 31st March 2014. Different sectors show different levels of profitability with returns for all average-performing sheep enterprises show positive returns, whilst suckler cow enterprises are struggling to make any margin. The table below shows net margins for the top third in each enterprise are positive except for lowland suckler herds and beef rearer/finishers. But there still remains a significant gap between the top third and average producers. Compared to last year many enterprises have seen the situation worsen and the gap between the best and average producer has grown. In most of the enterprises it is the difference in fixed costs which accounts for the majority of the variation between the average and the top third. ENTERPRISE NET MARGINS 2012/13 and 2013/14 – Source: EBLEX Net Margin 2012/13 Net Margin 2013/14 Average Top Third Average Top Third Lowland Suckler Herds (£ per cow to bull) -236.72 -58.29 -288.11 -102.19 LFA Suckler Herds (£ per cow to bull) -182.06 7.59 -210.12 -82.20 Combined Rearer/ Finisher (£ per cow to the bull) -314.50 n/a -304.70 -3.11 Beef Finishing up to 16 months (£ per head) 27.62 n/a -23.58 269.59 Beef Finishing 16 months & over (£ per head) -88.81 131.03 -131.69 94.73 Store Rearers (£ per head) -46.68 35.88 -135.73 37.87 Lowland Breeding Flocks (£ per ewe to ram) -12.65 18.34 -16.51 10.41 LFA Breeding Flocks (£ per ewe to ram) -15.81 13.96 -13.65 15.53 Store Lamb Finishing (£ per head) -6.33 3.51 -7.39 5.38 The report, which is only in its second year, aims to offer more detailed benchmarking figures and extra physical information for producers to compare their enterprises against similar ones – highlighting which areas they are doing well in and where improvements could be made. This year additional analysis has been carried out based on calving and lambing times. The results are from actual figures collected from a sample of English beef and sheep farms. The full report can be downloaded from http://www.eblex.org.uk/returns/stocktake-2014/
