Make an Enterprise MOT your first 2010 priority

BEEF and sheep producers across the country should make a simple assessment of herd or flock efficiency their number one priority for the New Year.

With help from EBLEX's new Enterprise MOT service, farmers should focus their improvement efforts on the areas of greatest value. 

The most recent national enterprise costings highlight considerable individual room for improvement, with typical net margin differences of £100-£200/head between average and top third performing beef businesses and £15-30/head between equivalent sheep enterprises (Table).

 

    Table:  EBLEX 2009 Business Pointers Net Margin Performance *

 

Enterprise Type	Average	Top Third	Difference
Lowland Suckler Herds	-£90.97	£30.91	£121.88
Less Favoured Area Suckler Herds	-£119.87	-£12.92	£106.95
Combined Reared/Finisher Herds	-£47.14	£97.45	£144.59
Extensive Cattle Finishing	-£63.39	£170.57	£233.96
Intensive Cattle Finishing	£92.73	£201.20	£108.47
Lowland Breeding Flocks	-£4.72	£24.30	£29.02
Less Favoured Area Breeding Flocks	-£4.81	£13.83	£18.64
Store Lamb Finishing	£6.16	£21.30	£15.14
Early Lambing Flocks	£5.57	£28.32	£22.75

  * Margin/head after fixed costs but before non-cash costs (unpaid family labour, rental value of owned land and

     interest on working capital) for English costed herds and flocks in the year to March 2009.

               

While the national costings figures clearly attribute these differences to a combination of physical performance and cost control, their detail can make it difficult for many producers to make their own benchmarking comparisons. Hence the need for a simple, more direct individual annual assessment as the basis for improvement planning.

 

Developed to provide beef and sheep producers with an immediate, visual guide to their areas of greatest performance strength and weakness from information readily available to almost any business, the EBLEX Snapshot Bronze tool is being harnessed to offer just this for the new decade.

 

Within the coming month every Beef and Sheep Better Returns Programme member will be offered the opportunity to have their own confidential Enterprise MOT undertaken free of charge using the tool which gives clear ‘traffic light’ signals on key performance indicators from the least possible farm information.  As well as Snapshot results indicating the most fruitful areas for future improvement attention, all those returning their input forms will receive copies of the most helpful EBLEX publications for their own particular needs.

 

English levy payers wishing to receive their own MOT this January, but not yet members of the Better Returns Programme, can register for the free service on line through www.eblex.org.uk , by e-mailing brp@eblex.org.uk or by phoning EBLEX on 0870 241 8829.

 

 

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