P.PSH.1187 - Pastoral Company Production and Financial Benchmarking, 2018‐21
Did you know herd productivity, herd expenditure, labour efficiency and operating scale are the main factors affecting beef business profitability?
| Project start date: | 01 March 2019 |
| Project end date: | 30 March 2023 |
| Publication date: | 23 August 2023 |
| Project status: | Completed |
| Livestock species: | Grass-fed Cattle |
| Relevant regions: | Queensland, Northern Territory |
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Download Report
(1.7 MB)
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Summary
This project analysed the performance of over 100 pastoral company stations (business units) from 11 companies across northern Australia. The group analysed approximately 5% of the national herd on 3.5% of the Australian landmass. This is the largest dataset on beef business performance in Australia, outside of the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES).
Objectives
The purpose of the project was to provide participants with a detailed analysis of their production and financial performance (at station, enterprise, region and company level) in their own right and relative to their peers.
This provided insight into the performance achieved and the reasons behind it, along with facilitating group discussion on factors within management control that influence performance.
Key findings
This project found that although beef business performance varies across years, regions, companies, business units and enterprises, there are fundamental factors that clearly separate top performers. These fundamentals that should be the primary focus are:
- better herd productivity, measured in kilograms of beef produced per adult equivalent (AE), resulting in higher income per AE
- better targeted, and lower, direct herd expenditure
- better labour efficiency, resulting in lower overheads per animal unit
- sufficient operating scale.
Benefits to industry
This project provided an opportunity to understand the performance of 100 pastoral company stations from 11 companies, representing approximately 5% of the national herd. This provided the opportunity for valid comparison of their businesses at a herd, business unit, regional, and company levels. This benchmarking encourages best practice and efficiency within and between the companies involved.
MLA action
MLA continues to support financial benchmarking and will continue the financial benchmarking project. MLA is also supporting non-corporate beef businesses in understanding their businesses and benchmarking through the NB2 program.
Future research
The project and dataset provide learning and insights to participants and the industry, so it is recommended that the project be continued. Future work will focus on the opportunity to improve the ease of data transfer from pastoral companies for analysis, and back to the pastoral companies for interpretation.
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For more information Contact Project Manager: Georgie Mutton |
