With rises in feed, fertiliser and fuel costs, is it time for you to get involved with Farmbench?

This is the first of a series of articles about how Farmbench benefits livestock farmers. With more than 3,000 registered users already, it is a valuable tool for seeing how your business compares with others.

• Are you a beef or lamb farmer?
• Do you know your cost of production?
• Would you like data to help you improve your efficiency and returns?

Farmbench is a way for producers to contribute data about their farms and, in the process, better understand how well their beef and sheep enterprises are performing against similar businesses. As part of AHDB’s Shape the Future vote, the Beef & Lamb Sector Council and our levy payers agreed that it is important to have physical and financial performance data for English producers.

Why Farmbench?

Farmbench allows you to compare agreed performance indicators with other farmers on both a local and national scale. This allows you to make evidence-based decisions to improve profitability and productivity.

The ultimate aim of Farmbench is to have a better understanding of your business and help put you in control of your future. Farmbench already has over 3,000 registered users, giving you a good range of comparable farms.

What is involved?

One of our Farmbench managers comes to your farm, collects the information required for Farmbench and uploads it for you.

Once the data is uploaded, farmers receive a detailed report of their figures. The report highlights the strengths and weaknesses of their business compared to similar operations in the country. There are opportunities in some areas to get involved in local groups to discuss data comparisons with other farmers.

Your personal data will never be shared, and you will need to give permission for further use of your business data. Your data is also validated by AHDB before being included anonymously in comparative aggregated benchmarks.

Our guidance details what is required for each step in the process, and our Farmbench managers provide all the support you need.

More Farmbench articles in early 2024

This is the first of a series of articles our Farmbench managers and livestock market specialists will publish over the next few months on what the top performers do and the benefits of knowing your cost of production. They will delve into the data collected in 2022 and give an insight on how breeding flock and suckler herd enterprises are performing.