Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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374. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the latest information from his Department on the average cost of production, euro per kg of beef, for primary producers of beef; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32513/16]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine does not record the average cost of production incurred by primary producers of beef. There are many types and systems of beef production in Ireland currently including but not limited to suckler to steer/heifer systems, suckler to bull beef systems, dairy calf to beef systems, all of which have various different systems within each system. Furthermore there are a number of production systems which do not involve bringing animals forward for slaughter such as suckler to weanling systems and farmers who market store cattle across a range of ages for other producers to finish.

As an example of the range of diversity of the amount of finishing systems in Ireland, Teagasc when updating their Beef Systems Blueprints as part of the Beef Roundtable talks in 2015, produced Blueprints for 13 different finishing beef systems. In that context it is very difficult to calculate an average cost of production that is applicable across beef production in Ireland. There are many factors which impact on the costs incurred by producers depending on their system of production e.g. the price of concentrates will impact much more heavily on those systems of production which depend more on concentrates in the diets of finishing cattle as opposed to those finishing cattle off grass.

Similarly in terms of fixed costs, these can be impacted in many instances by the stage of development of a farm with those farms investing heavily in physical infrastructure in the last number of years likely to have higher fixed costs than those farms who did not require such investment in their facilities.

Teagasc when developing these Blueprints formulated a very useful cost of production template which producers themselves can use to calculate their own costs of production and use to determine the profitability of each system of production. In addition Teagasc also publish an Annual Review and Outlook for each sector in December with a mid-year update in July. The July 2016 update stated the following in relation to 2016 production costs:

- The direct costs of beef production are dominated by purchased feed and pasture costs.

- In 2016 due to normal levels of grass availability, purchased feed volumes are not expected to increase.

- For the year to date energy and fertiliser prices in particular have been lower than in 2015.

- Feed prices have been largely unchanged compared to 2015, but are forecast to weaken somewhat over the remainder of the year due to cereal and oilseed market developments and the strength of the dollar.

A full link to the Teagasc report can be found at

I am very conscious of the difficulties facing primary producers in the beef sector and my Department is taking all the steps it can to secure new market access opportunities for both live animals and processed beef. In addition I have also provided increased funding to Teagasc in Budget 2017 for its research, education and advisory functions and funding for my Department's Beef Knowledge Transfer programme which is designed to enable farmers to focus on best practices and efficiencies within the farm gate. In addition beef farmers also enjoy  a range of supports through the Department's various schemes such as BPS, TAMS, GLAS, ANC and of course the BDGP.