Competitiveness In Irish Sheep Production

Abstract

The main objective of this study was to examine and compare lowland sheep production in France, the UK, New Zealand and Ireland. Ireland, the UK and New Zealand were selected as being the main exporting countries, whilst France is the main EU importing country and is also a major sheep producer. Sheep is not a major contributor to agricultural output in the 3 EU countries but contributes 17.5% to output in New Zealand. New Zealand had the largest breeding flock size at 1,890 ewes compared to 223 ewes in the UK and 112 and 104 ewes in France and Ireland respectively. French and UK lamb carcass weights were similar at 17.5kg compared to 18.5kg in Ireland and 15.9kg in New Zealand. French farmers obtained the highest prices for their lamb, whilst UK and Irish prices were broadly similar and approximately three times greater than New Zealand lamb prices. Total receipts to Irish farmers i.e. lamb sales and subsidies were approximately 4.5 times greater than receipts to New Zealand producers. Lamb carcass classification schemes were in operation for many years in all countries except Ireland where a scheme was introduced in recent years. UK producers had the best technical performance producing 18.3 lambs per hectare compared to 11.7 in Ireland, 9.8 in France and 12.7 in New Zealand. Financial output per ewe was highest in France but direct and overhead costs were also much higher resulting in France having a lower net margin than either the UK or Ireland but higher than New Zealand due mainly to low product prices. The total cost of producing 1kg of lamb carcass was highest in France at IR£3.44, compared to IR£2.06 in the UK, IR£1.92 in Ireland and IR£1.20 in New Zealand. New Zealand sheep producers have a comparative advantage over EU producers and can produce lamb at less than half the cost in addition to having a much higher throughput per labour unit. The most notable features of New Zealand sheep production in relation to EU production are the larger scale of operation; low direct costs of production; low labour input; the high level of specialisation and the level of technical efficiency achieved.