British sheep and beef industry body EBLEX has announced it is recruiting English farmers to take part in its new Stocktake annual costs of production survey.

Stocktake will replace Business Pointers from next year and will involve costs of production data being taken from farms across the country to build a picture of performance and help identify good practice and where efficiencies can be made.

To this end, EBLEX is looking for farmers to provide the raw data and get a free on farm costings analysis to improve returns, while helping to inform the bigger industry picture.

Business Pointers has been running for 10 years, with data collected via an external supplier for 400 beef and sheep enterprises. This activity is now being taken in house by EBLEX greater details to be picked out in the analysis relating to specific types of enterprise and on farm practices.

On farm data collection for 2012 will start in February with participating farmers typically spending half a day putting together basic farm costs information with help from one of EBLEX’s trained regional officers. Once analysed, farmers receive a detailed report highlighting strengths and weaknesses of their business, compared to other operations in the country.

Mark Topliff, senior analyst with EBLEX, said, “Stocktake will enable regional officers to guide farmers to use technical information and make positive changes to their enterprises where needed.”