AgriProfit$ – Beef cost of production economics

Overview

The AgriProfit$ program provides services for farm business managers that help them make better business management decisions.

The AgriProfit$ beef program examines the profitability, financial and production efficiencies, and risk-bearing ability of the entire beef operation. It also sheds light on how each production stage contributes to overall profitability.

The program relies on direct farm data to generate the cost of production for each of the 3 production stages:

Cow/Calf

The cow/calf enterprise covers the production from breeding, calf rearing and herd maintenance, through to weaning of calves – the major product of this enterprise.

Backgrounding

The backgrounding enterprise feeds and manages retained, weaned calves either in a drylot or pasture. Feeder cattle are the major product from this enterprise. Once a desired weight is achieved, feeders are either moved to feedlots for finishing, or directly to slaughter.

Finishing

The final production stage is the finishing enterprise where feeder cattle are fed a higher energy diet to increase body weight for slaughter. Some operations choose to finish their animals on the same site.

Publications

AgriProfit$ provides participating Alberta beef producers with:

• a report of the provincial benchmarks for comparison of farm results
• cost and returns reports on their farm business and contributing enterprises
• assistance in program participation through interpretative videos to improve the user experience and help participants interpret their results

AgriProfit$ allows beef producers to evaluate their own operations through comparison to similar beef businesses. Benchmark reports present the compiled productive, economic and financial performance of comparable beef enterprises.

Calculating the cost of production is an important step in assessing performance and understanding the current health of the farm business. Improving performance requires a good understanding of both the financial and technical aspects of the operation. AgriProfit$ participants receive detailed enterprise reports that outline all revenues and expenses involved in production; these are expressed in dollars per unit of production (returns per cow, per cwt gain, per animal head day).

Key technical indicators capture physical measures of output and input use. These include:

• pregnancy percentage
• calving percentage
• weaning percentage
• weaning weight as percentage of cow weight
• feed use
• AgriProfit$ GOLD performance – growth, open cow percentage, length of calving period, death loss

Benchmark reports are available for the following beef enterprises:

Cow/Calf

• Economic, production and financial performance of Alberta cow/calf operations
• Special edition: 22 year economic, productive, and financial performance of Alberta cow/calf operations (1995-2016)

Backgrounding

• Drylot backgrounding of feeder cattle: economic and productive performance

Other publications

• Cost and return benchmarks for crops and forages

Join the program

Sign up to be part of the program – AgriProfit$ is always open to new participants.

Sign up online

Producer information is collected in strict confidence. Only aggregated, non-identifying information is published.

After you sign up

There is a time commitment, and the first year’s submission requires compiling substantial amount of data including lists of buildings, and machinery investment and liabilities. Subsequent years build on this foundation.

After you sign up, a business specialist will contact you to arrange an on-farm visit.

Contact

Connect with the Economics Section:

Toll free: 310-0000 before the phone number (in Alberta)
Phone: 780-422-5027
Email: [email protected]