RMA’s Chris Howie during his presentation at the World Angus Expo in Tamworth

THE mindset of Australian beef producers was challenged during the cattle chats at the World Angus Expo in Tamworth over the weekend, with producers urged to focus on kilograms of beef produced, rather than running capacity.

Cattle producers in a large crowd were asked to raise their hands on who measured the amount of beef that leaves their farms in kilograms produced, rather than how many head they can run on their farms or paddocks.

Rural Marketing Agents chief executive Chris Howie, a regular columnist for Beef Central, challenged producers after only four people raised their hands, asking why we spend so much time on “trying to fix things we can’t change.”

“A bad steer is a bad steer and will always be a bad steer. So why put all of your good resources and time into something that does not have the ability to make you a profit?” Mr Howie asked.

He said a producers’ best and middle animals will always finish faster and generally use less feed to get to that point, so instead of using the best available feed on animals that don’t perform, he suggested changing thinking and asking, “How can I use that resource better?”

Mr Howie was a notable Stock and Station agent in his own right for many years, has worked across finance and marketing agencies and believes that it is time for producers to think harder about how they make money off their farms, rather than focussing on their carrying capacities.

He said the pasture or crop that was traditionally used to try to fatten lower-performing stock should be used to buy in good trade cattle or sheep that can “turn a handy profit and one that is a lot higher than that of the low performing stock.”

“Cut your losses on the tail end of your calves or even lambs and use that feed to turn over higher performing stock that has a better impact on your profitability on farm,” was his advice

Mr Howie referenced the MyMLA platform and tools like in-field weighing technology provider Optiweigh as some of the tools made available to producers in the last 50 years – allowing them to see in real time how cattle and sheep  are performing in the paddock or when sold. This allowed for better decisions to be made on farm at critical times to underpin that farms profitability.

“Couple this with the advances in vaccinations and animal health options, finance options and feed mapping as other real-time drivers of profitability and producers have a plethora of ways to increase profits on their farms,” he said.

“I have spent time in the livestock finance side of the industry, and it is so under-utilised in this space, as it allows producers to use capital when they need to use it rather than when a bank overdraft allows them to.”

“If we want to talk about profitability on-farm, we need to use all the tools available to us and not get stuck in the past of what our fathers have done for 50 years,” he said.

Mr Howie said this was the “sexy stuff”: the stuff that allowed producers to identify market options, chase markets and produce better stock and in turn, turn off more kilograms off farm than ever before.

“Anything going to an end destination is measured in kilograms,” he said.

“You have data in your pocket daily and more data than ever before to make informed decisions, find the efficiencies in your business and adapt to the resources available and drive new market options to become more profitable,” he told the audience.

“Profitability is a choice and it is up to you as producers to challenge yourself to think about what drives profit on your farm and environment, and how you could utilise your resources better to increase your kilograms sold – whether it is beef, lamb or crops, it is all relative to the amount of kilograms sold off farm.”

Mr Howie said producers needed to be looking at costs as their asset. “Treat it like a benefit to your business and get out of the negative mindset around cost and use what you have to make a positive change in your business,” he said.

He challenged the crowd, suggesting they were in control of their costs and what they needed to do to lift their profitability by 10 percent.

Mr Howie finished by saying, “You always make your money when you buy. We as an industry need to work together to get more price discovery further out than a week, so we can make better on-farm decisions to further increase profitability.”

• More reports from the World Angus Forum’s Tamworth leg later today, and the upcoming Brisbane Congress later this week.