The Pasture-Based Beef Enterprise Calculator helps a user estimate the financial outcomes and land needed for a prospective pasture-based beef production system. The tool is structured to examine results of beef production in typical segments or phases of the industry: cow-calf, stocker, finishing, and direct sale of meat. It can be used to look at only one segment or in any combination. In addition to calculating the return in each segment or phase on a per animal basis, the user can generate a 5-year financial forecast and estimate land requirements by entering hypothetical data on how herd numbers will change from year-to-year.
It offers a template to build “what-if” scenarios for business planning that includes yields, acres used, costs, and potential cash flow. It can be of value to:
• Existing beef farmers seeking ways to reduce costs of production by changing to a grass-based system or changing their business model
• Existing Beef farmers contemplating adding value and resilience to their operation by selling to grass fed branded programs and/or direct marketing
• People not currently engaged in beef production who want to understand the likely financial outcomes to help them in deciding what enterprise model to pursue
• Farmers exploring ways to improve the environmental outcomes on their land through the profitable use of managed, perennial pastures in beef production
The Pasture-Based Beef Enterprise Calculator is an Excel spreadsheet that is free to download and use. It is one of many decision support tools within the Compass Tool program at the Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Compass Tools are designed to help “point the way to profitability” by helping producers measure their cost of production and monitor enterprise and market channel profitability.
The Pasture-Based Beef Enterprise Calculator has been developed by Grassland 2.0 and the Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems of the University of Wisconsin in collaboration with The Pasture Project at the Wallace Center. This edition of the tool is a revision of the very popular Pasture-raised Beef Calculator financial prediction spreadsheet introduced in 2015 by The Pasture Project.
The primary authors are Jim Munsch (grass-fed beef producer and consultant) and John Hendrickson (Farm Viability Specialist at the Center for integrated Agricultural Systems, UW-Madison). If you have questions or feedback, contact John Hendrickson at jhendric@wisc.edu.