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MELLBY GÅRD FARM
A stable financial performance
with conditions that continue
to be favourable
The conditions for the agricultural and forestry business were
significantly better in 2024 than in 2023. The weather was favourable and
input prices fell, while prices for sales commodities such as timber, pigs
and cattle increased or remained stable.
When Petter Beckman, operations manager for farming and
forestry at Mellby Gård, looked ahead to 2024 towards
the end of 2023, he was hoping for a secure and stable
year. And his hopes were more than realized.
“We had a number of parameters working against us in 2023 in
terms of weather and a number of challenging circumstances driven
by a turbulent world,” says Petter Beckman. “Although the situation
continues to be unsettled, things turned around in 2024 and most of
the factors affecting our business were favourable.”
Weather conditions for agriculture were good. In addition, the
prices of most inputs fell, while demand and hence the price level of
goods for sale rose or remained stable at a decent level.
“Demand for Swedish food is high, which had a positive impact on
the pig and cattle business,” says Petter Beckman. “In this regard,
the weak Swedish krona is also an advantage; the currency makes
it unattractive to export to Sweden. The price of beef reached an
all-time high this year. Overall, this generated a stable financial
performance in 2024.”
Overall, 2024 generated a stable
financial performance
STRONG FORESTRY MARKET AND FOCUS ON
MAINTENANCE
Prices in the forestry sector also continued to develop favourably.
“In southern Sweden, sawmills still have low stocks of timber, result- es could become a full-scale, integrated pig production operation.
ing in high demand and meaning in turn that timber and pulp prices
remain high,” explains Petter Beckman. “The low stock levels indicate
that prices may remain stable for some time to come. Generally
speaking, we’re continuing with our felling operations as planned.”
Where other activities on the farm are concerned, the focus was on
maintenance, with extra resources being provided for farm buildings
and housing, leading to higher maintenance costs.
No property acquisitions were made during the year due to the fact
that no suitable property came up for sale. The farm’s long-term strat-
egy remains unchanged, which means that it is continuously looking
to acquire properties, provided they are in line with the strategy.
We calculated our environmental
impact, and the results show that
the farm continues to make a
positive impact
SUSTAINABILITY WORK CONTINUING AT A STEADY PACE
Mellby Gård is continuing its work on sustainability to increase the
farm’s circularity and biodiversity.
“This includes heating our homes with wood chips from our own
forests and feeding our animals with locally produced grain and
by-products from the food industry,” says Petter Beckman. “We also
worked on fine-tuning our relatively large investment in solar panels
during the year. We calculated our environmental impact in terms of
CO2e, and the results show that the farm continues to make a posi-
tive environmental impact.”
Petter Beckman says the farm will make two major changes to its
operations in 2025.
“Firstly, the entire pig business on the farm will be leased out. This
also includes restarting the piglet business at Fredriksberg, which
has been in mothballs since 2021. In the long term, the two business-
We’re also looking at suitable land where we can plant energy forests,
which are increasingly in demand.”
PETTER BECKMAN,
Operations Manager
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