Farmbench, EnviroBeef tool and goodbye Agonomics

Tom: 00:00:00

So, Hannah, don't know about you, but I've been enjoying the sun and if any of my mates are listening in, they will know full well that I've come a cropper with a bit of sunburn recently. I don't know about you, but it's not been great for me.

Hannah: 00:00:12

I've noticed your absence from the office actually recently and I think you blame that on your sunburn.

Tom: 00:00:18

I know it's been, it's been pointed out on a few teams calls I even went into, I put a filter on to go black and white at one point just because I trying to shy away from it.

Hannah: 00:00:28

I. I've been staying out of the sun, I think, really. I've been trying to avoid getting tan lines.

I get married in a few weeks, so I'm trying not to get shot marks even though I'm out on farm quite a lot with strimming hedges back and mowing grass and stuff. So I really hope the weather holds for the big day.

And you know what they say, you have to plant a sausage, a raw sausage, the night before you get married. And that keeps the rain away, apparently.

Tom: 00:01:03

Hello, I'm Tom Spencer. I'm Hannah Clark and welcome once more to the world of agriculture and economics.

Hannah: 00:01:10

Yes, welcome to Agonomics.

Tom: 00:01:13

I just want to say thank you for the support over the last three months or so. You've been absolutely fantastic to us, but.

Hannah: 00:01:19

Unfortunately the rumors are true. This episode called Farm Bench, Enviro, Beef Tool and goodbye Agonomics is to be.

Tom: 00:01:28

Our last, the last ever Agonomics.

Hannah: 00:01:31

But not our final episode. Oh, no. Because while we're calling time on this.

Tom: 00:01:36

Podcast, we will be back along with Charlotte, who sends her apologies in a.

Hannah: 00:01:40

Brand new weekly show, mixing the spirit and content of Agonomics with the best.

Tom: 00:01:46

Bits of our sister podcast, Food and.

Hannah: 00:01:48

Farming, to bring you an all singing, all dancing offering from hdb.

Tom: 00:01:53

So watch this space. It's au revoir, not goodbye from the three of us.

Hannah: 00:01:58

In the meantime, it's on with this episode as we're joined by our farmbench colleagues, Zoe and Olivia to discuss their work and the importance of benchmarking.

Zoe: 00:02:08

If you don't actually know what your cost of production is and how much it's cost you to get there, it could be 4,000 pound a cow. If it's cost you 4,500 pounds to get it there, it's not a great price.

Tom: 00:02:18

We'll also pick out some of the interesting stories to make the news of late.

Hannah: 00:02:24

And of course, we've also got this Week's big question.

Tom: 00:02:29

So a reminder, no more episodes of Agronomics will drop at midday on Wednesdays. But please do keep following us wherever you listen to podcasts as we'll have details of our new show in due course.

Hannah: 00:02:42

And if you have any suggestions for what you'd like to hear in the new show, which will be up and running this autumn, email us@agonomicshdb.org UK welcome back, Tom. Another episode of Agonomics, our last one, unfortunately. How have you been? How was your week?

Tom: 00:02:58

Yeah, not too bad as I say. I have been enjoying the sun, been sort of excited of what's to come in terms of I'm off, off back home in a few weeks.

Time to go enjoy the hop harvest and go help out back home.

Hannah: 00:03:13

So will you be out in the fields?

Tom: 00:03:15

I will indeed, doing all the jobs. It's quite a. Quite a tough bit of work. It's quite manual. There's a big team of about, I don't know, 12 of us potentially.

So yeah, I'm excited to get, get involved with the gang once again.

Hannah: 00:03:27

Yeah, that'll be fantastic. You go down quite a lot, don't you, to help with the hops?

Tom: 00:03:32

It's one of my sort of passions when it comes to. Comes to farming.

Always got to keep myself grounded, although my job is mainly office based and on the, on the laptop looking at data, who knows where it comes from. But I do like to keep my roots firmly within the. Within the world of hops for sure.

Hannah: 00:03:49

The Kentish hop industry is alive and well, thanks to you.

Tom: 00:03:53

Exactly.

And on that note of harvest, my sort of news update, I thought it'd be quite timely to give everyone bit of an update on what's been happening in the world of cereals and all seeds over this summer.

Been quite a turbulent time, lots of ups and downs in terms of the data, but I've got the latest report which is all data is correct as of the 20th of August. So this is data collected by the Anderson's Centre and then compiled by our Sears and Oils team at ahdb.

With harvest still underway, yield and quality data will likely be skewed to two different regions. With a bit more harvest still to take place. We're not quite at the end.

Although it has been quite an early harvest, they should not be sort of considered representative of the whole country.

I should caveat that before we go through any stats because as a lot of you will be aware, the weather has been very variable when it comes to different parts of the country, different regions and actually just different farms and that's quite representative when it's come to stuff at home. I know when, when dad has his weather apps out and I think we counted, he's got 10 weather apps separate on his phone.

He'll have some rain and then the next door farm won't have had any. It's been very variable, but the top line figures. Let's go to wheat first.

So we're averaging across the farms that we've collected data from 7.3 tons a hectare which comes out at about 5% below the five year average. Though quality has been generally quite good. I will caveat that with some of this data being very variable.

So 30% of the farms in this survey were down 10% on the five year average with with the worst data coming back at down 29%. So that 5% below is, as I say, very variable.

The winter barley is now all finished from our surveyed farms with yields around 6.7 tonnes per hectare, which is roughly in line with recent years. However, when we take the 10 year average that's 4% down. Quality has been strong though of note, nitrogen levels are higher than usual.

Oilseed rate now been the standout crop for many yielding 3.7 tonnes per hectare on average. That is up 20% on the five year average and one of the best results in a decade.

Yet there have been significant variations in the survey with reports ranging from 9% down on the five year average all the way up to 42% above.

I know particularly at home down in Kent, that's been our strong take home has been that all seed rape as we've struggled a lot recently to actually either get a crop or get a crop that's yielded something. So that's the one win definitely. Back home in Kent, oat yields bit down averaging 4.8 tonnes per hectare. That's 10% down on the five year average.

With that sort of been particularly hit hard. This is subject to change as the harvest report is 89% complete as of 20 August, so that could all change.

Spring barley is approximately two thirds complete in terms of the harvest as of that 20th of August, with yields close to the average, but again very variable.

After some promising early reports, the range in spring barley yields reported within the survey run from 26% below the five year average all the way up to 21% above it. Finally, we've got pulses coming in hot and dry conditions at harvest. Leave many cutting beans early in the morning before pods become too brittle.

With yields reported 15% below that five year average, although again there's been a huge variation.

This time staggering variation, with some reporting 69% below the five year average, all the way up to 42% above, with reports coming in one ton a hectare, all the way up to 5.6 tons a hectare. So huge variation there.

Overall, harvesters run very ahead of schedule, as many will have experienced with that very hot and dry weather that we've experienced. But lower prices and back to back difficult years are leaving many arable farms facing serious financial strain.

If you want to read any of this, it's all on our website. Hannah, I hear you've been looking a bit more towards beef.

Hannah: 00:08:18

Yeah. So we've recently launched as hdb, a new genetic tool called Enviro Beef, which is very exciting.

Now this tool could help beef producers cut their greenhouse gas emissions while also improving the health and profit of their herds. So a bit of a win win, I think in terms of this tool.

Now, how it works is envirobaf is a genetic scoring system that measures the genetic potential of an animal to basically reduce the carbon footprint of suckler beef production. What the tool does is it combines data from the national beef evaluations, the MBE's, and that's includes a lot of data.

So that's everything from birth and carving records to carcass information and it turns it into a single score. And farmers can then use that score to decide which animals to keep, which to breed from and which to sell on.

And these scores can be compared across lots of different beef breeds.

So for example, A score of -10% means that an animal has the genetic potential to reduce emissions by 10% compared to the national average, which is very, very intelligent, smart. This tool uses existing data as well that farmers collect. So again, it's kind of a positive.

Unlike other tools for assessing emissions and emissions reduction, this tool really aims to use data that farmers already have. Unlike others that kind of may incur a bit of an ongoing cost for producers.

And of course, you know, breeding a more efficient herd can improve profitability as well as producing beef with a lower carbon footprint, which is obviously really important at the moment. The suckler industry is, as with other industries, is under pressure to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.

And carbon footprinting of herds is becoming increasingly important on farm for producers and indeed for the wider supply chain and for customers buying that beef and that product. So hopefully this tool can give beef producers a practical way to breed for a more sustainable future.

So there's more information online about this tool than how you can access it. And we can put some links in the show notes.

Tom: 00:10:43

Fantastic. Hannah, I know you've been involved in some more analysis when it comes to red meat, the economic impact, would that be correct?

Hannah: 00:10:53

Yes, Tom. So last week we published a report that explored the economic impact of the English red meat sector.

So it covers beef, lamb and pork and it basically describes the. The economic heft of the sector and the supply chain and its contributions to the national economy.

Tom: 00:11:14

I like that.

Hannah: 00:11:15

This is it. It's a good word, isn't it? Heft. But yeah. This report was carried out by a company called Pareto Consulting on behalf of HDB.

In: 2023

So it's the difference between the value paid to a producer for selling their goods and the cost of producing them.

So for the processing sector, the gva, or the gross value added, refers to the sale price of the meat minus the cost of inputs like the animal labour, overheads, et cetera. And the economic output value is basically the monetary value of the sale of goods and services.

So on farm, this refers to the value of the sale of livestock produced, and for the processing sector, it refers to the value of meat cuts and products sold from the carcass.

Tom: 00:12:21

Now, I know those numbers, those figures are rather huge.

But I'm sure there's some other benefits that the report covered that are crucial when it comes to what we see as the benefits of the red meat sector.

Hannah: 00:12:35

Yeah, that's right.

So the sector is clearly really important to the national economy, but the sector contributes a lot of less tangible public goods as well as those that are more explicitly measurable. The report goes into discussion around how the sector benefits, landscape features, cultural heritage, greenhouse gas, sequestration.

And it explores themes around sort of cultural identity as well, which is they're kind of less tangible, but they're really, really important for the kind of the fabric of the landscape and the environment as we kind of know it. That full report is available on the website.

To download, we've split the key sort of themes and results across some web pages to make it a bit more digestible because it's quite a chunky report. But yeah, please do go and have a read of that.

Tom: 00:13:21

And on that note, I think it's time we take a quick break. We'll be back very shortly with Zoe and Olivia from our FarmBench team to hear about what they've been getting up to.

Hannah: 00:14:56

Welcome back. You're listening to agrnomics with me, Hannah and my colleague Tom Spencer.

We talked about tools before the break and I think it's now time to head to another really important and exciting tool that HDB hosts called FarmBench. And we're joined by two of our FarmBench managers, Zoe Kingham and Olivia McDonagh. Welcome, guys.

Tell us who you are, what you do and what FarmBench is all about.

Zoe: 00:15:24

So we're made up of five of us in the Farm Bench team, covering the whole of the UK for the cereals and oilseed sectors and England for beef and lamb. So we each look after our own regions, kind of providing support, support to the farmers.

And that support can be helping farmers enter the data, interpreting the data, one to one visits to this to make sure that kind of technology or, you know, not knowing how to get started isn't a barrier for the farmers and to make sure that they get real value out of the process. So we also facilitate business discussion groups. We've got a network over the UK of over 40 groups.

They're kind of farmer led discussion groups and the conversation can be anywhere from inputs, farming methods, profitability and obviously profitability is something that's sometimes quite tricky to achieve. So actually having a bit of support between farmers and a trusted environment where they can share is really important.

We also do a lot of collaboration with stakeholders, again trying to get experts alongside what we're doing to really bring that value.

So quite often we'll speak to vets, consultants, we've got a number of cluster groups and kind of landscape recovery projects that we help support with banks, agronomists, the list goes on. We also support the AHGB analyst teams providing some of our industry data for different analysis outputs.

And we also work with various different outlets, such as we provided some insights on beef cost reduction work for the farmers weekly recently, just trying to make most of the use of the data that we have.

Hannah: 00:17:04

So you're everywhere.

Zoe: 00:17:05

Yeah, we do an awful lot actually and it's just trying to make, you know, the most of what we can with the numbers that we've got for, for farmers and for the wider industry.

Hannah: 00:17:13

How long has Farm Bench been running for?

Zoe: 00:17:15

has been running since about: 2017

Prior to that it was known as the stock take for beef and lamb and crop bench and milk bench for, for the other sectors before it was all kind of brought into one. So we do have a long Period of, of data, which is really helpful and we're always looking to kind of boost the data set and help more farmers.

One of the things that we're doing at the moment is some development to get environmental schemes added on. So historically we've just looked at individual enterprises and we've not taken any subsidies into account.

But obviously a lot of the new options for environmental potentially work alongside growing a crop or raising an animal. So to be able to add in your stewardship, seed costs and things into your, your main crop cost as well.

So there's some development going on on for that at the moment as well.

Tom: 00:18:10

Olivia, Zoe, this is quite an important time for the Farm Bench team as you release data annually on our website at on the Farm Bench sort of software that, that you have for farmers to access. Let's start with you Olivia. What can you tell us about what Farm Bench has to say this year?

Olivia: 00:18:29

e come towards the end of our: 2324

We've split it down this year, which is really exciting between SDA and non SDA kind of land types. So giving us a real broad range and more specific to farmers within their areas.

But for breeding flock sides, both non SDA and SDA achieved kind of a profitable net margin in those flocks with kind of non SDA flocks seeing a year on year kind of positive net margin and SCA flocks recovering from a previous loss in 23, 24. So that's kind of a real positive uphill incline that I've seen on the kind of sheep side of things for farmers.

Delving in a little bit further, we compared them to what we break it down in kind of the top 25% of farmers.

So these are our top performers, our data sets and farmers find it really helpful to see kind of what those top performing farms kind of bringing to the table and where they're getting those kind of larger profit margins out of. We've seen those big kind of contributing factors coming down to kind of your variable and overhead costs.

So tight control and observation in those areas is key to kind of a positive net margin overall.

Tom: 00:19:52

Are there any key characteristics that you can inform our listeners about about that, especially that top 25%. What, what potentially are doing that others might not be?

Olivia: 00:20:03

So with those SDA flocks, we've seen that they've spent just over 20 pounds more ahead per year put to the ram and around 13 pounds more for non SCA flocks compared to that top 25%. So you can see how that would kind of have a significant difference in kind of net margin and profitability at the end of that production year.

But we see kind of monitoring performance and cost in those areas is essential to increasing that profitability within those breeding flots.

Hannah: 00:20:31

Could you just explain, Olivia, what we mean by SDA and non sda?

Olivia: 00:20:35

This is different land types. We have around the UK severely disadvantaged areas and then obviously non severely disadvantaged area land types.

So that will be kind of very different farming methods for those farmers, which is really exciting that we've been able to split them this year. Just gives a more kind of accurate figure base for those farmers to compare to.

As I say, just very different kind of farming methods or kind of land types that they're dealing with, which has a big impact on flock management and their lambing patterns as well.

Tom: 00:21:05

Should we move on to Zoe? Have you got some insights from the beef side of things?

Zoe: 00:21:10

One of the key things about FarmBench is that it's enterprise specific, so everyone gets their annual accounts and everything. But within FarmBench we split it down into enterprises.

So for the beef side of things, that's going to be split down into suckler herds, which is the calf up until weaning store enterprises and finishing enterprises. So the idea of this is to really let you know your cost of production and margins for each enterprise to be able to make informed decisions on those.

So if one enterprise is propping up the other, that might sometimes be a conscious decision, but it's about being informed about that. So for the suckler enterprises, we're looking at the 23 autumn carving, spring 24 carving in this year.

m bench data shows that since: 2021

So of those top performing farms, the seriously disadvantaged herds have earned a full economic net margin of 64 pounds per cow put to the bull, while the middle 50% and bottom 25% have had losses of 259 to over 1,000 pounds per cow, which is obviously quite drastic. Those non SDA herds within the top 25% have performed slightly better.

They've got around 3% less income per cow than the SDA farms, but they've achieved profits of £218 per head for the top 25%, and that's mainly due to a significantly lower cost of production. The losses for the middle 50% and bottom 25% were smaller in the non SDA herds than the SDA ranging from 188 to 8, 146 for the bottom 25%.

Compared to the previous year, the overheads increased for both types of farms, although the SDA herds saw a much bigger rise in that those 23, 24 born calves at weaning, they've got higher weaning values which boost that overall income per cow put to the bull.

So that meant that those non SDA herds, the top 25% were up 20% on profitability and those those losses for the middle and bottom reduced for the SDA herds. Unfortunately those increased kind of incomes from those, those better beef prices weren't really enough to offset the higher costs.

So the bottom 25% were down 27% on profit to just £64 per cow. The middle were about £10 difference on last year. But the the bottom 25% losses, some really scary jumps in prices there.

I think it will be really interesting to see as we go into the 24, 25 year, which we're going to start collecting data from now, how those kind of increased beef prices start to filter through those overhead jumps and variable cost inputs that we saw drastically rise in the last few years and maybe starting to stable out a bit. So I'd like to think that with and better to beef prices overall, it should be a more positive look going.

Tom: 00:24:30

ces that we've experienced in: 2025

Zoe: 00:24:57

Yeah, definitely. And that's the thing, isn't it?

You always hear people saying about I got a great price for that cow or whatever, but if you don't actually know what your cost of production is and how much it's cost you to get there, it could be 4,000 pound a cow. If it's cost you four and a half thousand to get it there, it's not a great price. So that's one of the real key bits about far bench.

You know, you can compare to yourself year on year, you can compare to the national averages, but you can also work out what your cost of production is. Either like you say for a to get a calf to weaning to get it to a store, to finishing and whether that's per kilo per head.

It just gives you kind of an informed basis to make those decisions and plan off of.

Hannah: 00:25:38

It's fascinating this world of farm bench and cost production and really getting into the figures.

How can any farmers listening that might want to be involved in FarmBench or START maybe benchmarking their herds and flocks, how can they sort of get in touch and and start using that tool and reach out to you guys?

Olivia: 00:25:57

Getting involved in FarmBench kind of really easy. It's an online tool so we have an online platform. Either a link through the website or simply kind of googling farmbench.

You set up an online platform with your details and then we're able to kind of see who signs up and us as regional managers, we're there as kind of a one to one contact and a familiar face to either help you kind through those steps, inputting data, which enterprise you have on farm equally, if you're happy to kind of crack on and have a go yourself, we're on the end of the phone to support with any needs. As Zoe mentioned earlier, we offer farm visits.

So come out to farm, collect that data and can input it on your behalf if that's something that's kind of of interest. I know a lot of our farmers find that kind of takes away the admin side of things for them. So that's always really helpful.

Tom: 00:26:44

And I think I'm right in saying Olivia that if you are a farmer who is involved in this surve, help us produce those figures. You get a specific report from yourselves about where your farm sits and a bit of insight. Is that right?

Olivia: 00:27:00

So once all that farm data's been inputted, it gets validated by ourselves within the team to make sure that data is as accurate as possible and give you kind of solid figures at the end of that production year.

Hannah: 00:27:13

Brilliant. And I understand you've got a little webinar coming up soon.

Olivia: 00:27:17

We do. We have a farm bench webinar coming up on the 30th of September at 1pm so that can be found on the website under the events page.

It has got very catchy titles. So from the field to the figures livestock performance uncovered.

So we will be looking at kind of what the big drivers are for, stronger net margins and areas to focus on for lower cost of production as well as what contribution to those top performing farms. So kind of real oversight of farm bench.

Hannah: 00:27:47

Olivia, Zoe, thank you so much for taking us through all that. There is so Much more to read and understand about farm bench and benchmarking and how you can get involved.

So please do go to all the places that Olivia and Zoe have sign posted if you're interested. I think that's probably all we've got time for on this fascinating topic.

So thank you guys so much for your time and brains and I think it's time for a quick break.

Tom: 00:28:42

Welcome back to Agronomics. I believe now is the time for our big question of the week. Martin.

Martin: 00:28:48

Yeah, normally it's something that's given me, but just off the cuff, it is the last episode of Agonomics. I will be producing AHDB's new podcast when it launches this autumn. Hannah, Tom, you're in.

I can confirm you are in as presenters, as is Charlotte, but it would just be interesting to know how have you enjoyed the last, what, three months working on this show? Is it everything that you expected it to be?

And have you got any advice for me to make sure that we do produce an absolute humdinger of a show when we return?

Hannah: 00:29:25

Three months, that's flown by for me. This has been a fantastic experience and a massive learning curve.

I've never done anything like this kind of thing before, podcasting wise, and for me it's been fascinating just learning how a podcast is put together. It's also been surprisingly difficult just to learn how to string a sentence together that's coherent and sounds, you know, exciting.

Tom: 00:29:53

Well, you've done a very good job at that, Hannah. This experience over the past few months really has shown the sort of the behind the belly of the beast, so to speak of.

Actually, it's not, not actually as simple as just having a chat. There is, there is, there is a bit behind it, but I hope it's come across as someone listening now is as coherent as you say.

Stringing those sentences along are not, not always easy, especially when there's sort of technical data to produce.

It's nice to have your stats, to not hide behind as such, but to be able to get them across in that sort of understandable way, especially as a listener and not a reader. They're two very different things.

Hannah: 00:30:35

I'm interested to know what Martin thinks because Martin's been with ergonomics from the very beginning when we had David and Jack. What have you learned, Martin?

Martin: 00:30:44

Well, I've learned we've got an MI team, we do all this economics and analysis. It's always good to know. Seriously, it's good, good to brush up on, on that side of things.

So I've learned quite A lot in terms, as you said, you know, in terms of the, the content of what goes into the show.

But I'm just so grateful to David and Jack, actually, because it was their idea to, to almost do something like this on a regular basis, not necessarily a podcast, but we came together, we got the idea. Sadly, Jack went, David went. Hannah, Tom and Charlotte, you've come in and you've absolutely smashed it. So making podcasts is a passion of mine.

So to actually find like minded individuals within the organization has been absolutely great. One of whom isn't here today. You know, Charlotte isn't here this week, but like you, she's been reflecting on her time in one of the three hot seats.

Charlotte: 00:31:41

So hosting the Agonomics podcast has surprised me more than I can tell you.

And I do think that the team can attest to me being one of the more cautious amongst them when we were approached about hosting following David Udall's departure. But actually it's been incredibly rewarding and I think more importantly, really fun.

And it gave me the chance to explore topics that actually I do care deeply about and connect with brilliant minds across the industry as well as learn something new with every episode. And I've genuinely loved the experience.

So whether that's conversations that we spark to the stories that we've shared, and even Martin's shark infested custard jokes haven't been enough to put me off. But I think what actually made it even more special was the team.

So working with the really passionate, creative and supportive group of Tom, Hannah and producer Martin has quite simply been a joy.

Everyone has brought something really unique to the table and the energy and commitment that everyone has made to this process made it feel quite effortless and actually exciting. So I'm incredibly grateful as well to the team that they have equally entertained some of my more harebrained ideas.

And as we move to the next chapter with a new AHDB podcast, I am feeling incredibly hopeful.

I'd love to see it continue with the spirit of curiosity and openness, as well as fun that we have built with Agonomics, while reaching even more people and bringing fresh voices into the mix, and all importantly, showcasing even more of the incredible work that AHDB does. There is so much potential and I can't wait to see where it goes. And dear listener, I do hope that you'll join us.

Tom: 00:33:33

Yes, Sharla, I echo those words. I think that's very well put. It has been a rollercoaster ride and we've learned so much. Big thank you.

Must go out to some other people who sometimes go unmentioned. Alice, you may have heard her on the podcast a few times when Martin's been sunning himself on holiday. David, he's someone David Aldridge.

He helps us more admin side of things. He's been invaluable, keeping us on track in terms of our sort of schedules and things.

And to Phil Maiden for helping oversee all that you see see as aganomics. But finally, all the different guests.

We've had lots of good contributors to Agronomics, which it would not be the show it is without them and providing all their insights.

It has been really, really interesting to talk to everyone and I feel like everyone's spoken amazingly about the passions they have for their data and analysis and insights into the world of agriculture and economics.

Hannah: 00:34:31

Yeah, a lot of people go into.

Martin: 00:34:33

Producing these episodes, but it wouldn't be anything without you. And that is why we do this or have been doing this on a weekly basis.

And that is why we will be returning with I've already said it, a humdinger of a show.

Tom: 00:34:47

See you there.

Hannah: 00:34:48

See you on the other side.