Survey highlights the real beef when it comes to cattle farming

WYou see, to earn the average industrial wage, you work just 36 hour each week and in most cases you are not required to invest a brass farthing of your own money.

I believe it is fair to say that in any other modern society or economy people such as cattle farmers, who year after year make such huge economic sacrifices for the national good, would surely be regarded as true patriots.

Recent industrial unrest would, however, suggest that there are very few other sectors in Ireland who are prepared to go down this “patriotic” route.

These miserable income fig- ures do, of course, raise some very uncomfortable questions.

• Why are the primary producers of what is one of Ireland’s main export earners paid so badly?

• Why do cattle farmers continue to put up with this situation year after year when other sectors rightly protest when their much higher incomes come under threat?

Perhaps a book — ‘Status Anxiety’, written by Alain De Botton and referred to by my colleague Joe Barry in his article some months back — could hold the answer.

De Botton argues that it’s simply human nature for us to be concerned about how we are perceived by others in our societal group.

De Botton points out that it is only since 1776 that status has been aligned with financial achievement. Originally, he argues that it could depend on one’s ability to hunt or fight as a warrior or later, perhaps, being part of an ancient family, be a knight or indeed have close connections with nobility.

Judging by the miserable income figures shown year after year for cattle farming, it’s blatantly obvious that income has little to do when ascribing “status” in the cattle sector.

So what are the attributes which currently appear to bestow status on a cattle farmer?

Recently in conversation with some very knowledgeable farming insiders, the consensus reached was that in most cases the “appearance” of being a very good cattle farmer was what was really important, far more so it appears than actually generating a decent living from your farm.

Could their suggestion that it’s all about optics be correct? Could the presence of fancy fashionable stock, big new sheds, lots and lots of inputs, fancy new tractor and equipment and perhaps a really nice jeep and trailer really be the attributes by which our success is judged?

Not surprisingly, these are the types of things the mandarins of the agri-food sector continually encourage cattle farmers to spend their hard-earned money on — but then they would, wouldn’t they? Sure, isn’t that how they make their living after all, selling more and more stuff to farmers, whether we need it or not.

Controlling costs is one of the most important issues in the running of any business, and when the enterprise gives such a low return as beef production it is critically important.

I believe that we have some very successful cost-conscious cattle farmers in Ireland, but you’ll never see them featured in our farming media winning awards.

They are far too busy getting on with the everyday running of their business, irrespective of what anybody thinks.