NSW beef cattle producers now have two simple-to-use tools to allow them to calculate how well their beef business is performing.

The Cost of Production (CoP) Calculator was developed by Meat and Livestock Australia as part of the More Beef from Pastures program as a 'do-it-yourself' tool to measure the total kilograms of beef produced and the cents-per-kilogram outlay to produce it.

Few beef producers ever measure these two basic indicators, and our industry has historically argued that it is too difficult to do this because of the extensive nature of beef production.

However, if we are going to be economically competitive in the future, I think we need to start measuring and monitoring the 'health' of our businesses and to strive for greater efficiency.

These benchmarks can be used to compare one year’s performance to the next or last, monitor progress against planned targets and, if the calculator isused in a standardised way, compare the output to that of similar businesses.

Several hundred NSW cattle producers have already participated in a series of short practical workshops and the feedback has been outstandingly positive.

The aim of these workshops is to show that the CoP calculator is not complicated and that most beef producers have the required information readily available and can use it without difficulty.

One clear early outcome from those workshops is that when participants do their individual calculations, they realise that to increase efficiency they need to produce more kilograms of beef while either maintaining or reducing their costs.

This demonstrates just how useful it is to know these two indicators (kilograms producedand cost/kg).

David Beca, Red Sky Agriculture director, says in an article in MLA’s Prograzier that 'assessing your cost of production is a good first step to check the health of your business'.

If you are interested in taking this first step there are a number of options available:

• To 'do it yourself', the CoP calculator is available at no cost electronically from www.mla.com.au
• Or if you wish to be part of a workshop, register your interest with me or your nearest NSW DPI beef products officer.