Beef cattle commercial production

Cattle farming involves rearing and management of two types of animals one group for food requirements like milk and another for labor purposes like ploughing, irrigation, etc.

Beef farming systems are remarkably diverse, ranging from suckler herds where home-bred calves are reared to sell as finished beef, to herds where cattle are purchased at any age from a week old, to be sold at any age from a few weeks to slaughter weight.

There are three main types of commercial beef cattle production systems:
* Cow-Calf Phase (Feeder Calf Production): the cow calf segment which produces weaned feeder calves for further grazing and/or feeding. Establishing a breeding herd takes time. It also requires more land.
* Backgrounding Phase: the backgrounding or stocker phase of production in which body weight is added to recently weaned calves, resulting in feedlot ready yearlings. A backgrounding or stocker operation typically pastures or feeds purchased weaned calves until they reach 750 to 800 pounds. Then they are sold to a feedlot for finishing.
* Finishing/Feedlot Phase: the finishing phase of production in which cattle are fattened for slaughter.

Factors that should be considered in choosing a suitable system include:
• The capacity of the land to support growth of grass, forage and cereals for cattle feed.
• Land area available.
• Winter housing available.
• Labor.
• Availability of cheap straw bedding.
• Other enterprises such as sheep-rearing and arable cropping.

The period of transition from the ranch to the feedlot is one of the most challenging times in a beef animal’s life from a welfare perspective. This is related to the multiple stressors that newly received calves and yearlings are exposed to prior to coming to the feedlot such as weaning (separation), castration and dehorning, branding, vaccination, handling, transport, potential mixing at an auction market, exposure to a new diet and a novel environment including pens, waterers, and feed bunks.

Feeds for cattle
Generally, cattle are fed a mixture of these feedstuffs in amount according to body size, physiological stage and purpose of feeding. Feedstuffs are categorized as concentrates or roughages. Concentrates are feedstuffs high in digestible nutrients, like grains and protein supplements. Roughages are feedstuffs that usually have a lower nutrient density and more fiber. Examples of roughages include hay, pasture, and silage. As a general rule, beef cattle consume up to 3 percent of bodyweight of good-quality feed (on a dry matter basis) per day.
Beef cattle commercial production

Intensive cattle production systems

In intensive production system, cows are housed loose or tied in barns, with automatic feeding, manure cleaning and milking. There is artificial ventilation, lighting and microclimate control.

Grazing is not practiced for cows in intensive milk production, they are mainly fed in the barns.

These systems are characterized by a high stocking density and a high output of animal products per unit of agricultural land and per unit of stock.

This is generally achieved by high efficiency in converting animal feed into animal products.

Cattle are fed diets that are energy-dense, consisting primarily of grain. Current feedlot production and management efficiently produce highly marbled beef that is subsequently low in price for consumers.

Cattle are generally fed to an end point that is desirable buy consumers, i.e., safe, flavorful and tender. This end point is generally 28% to 30% carcass fat, US Department of Agriculture Choice grade, with 0.4 to 0.5 in, of backfat.
Intensive cattle production systems

Feedlot system

A feedlot is a fenced or closed area where animals are fattened for market. More precisely, it’s a livestock management system where grazing animals are confined to an area that produces no feed, and are then fed on stored feeds.

In Americas and Australia, the main system of finishing cattle is through feedlots, which are confined areas on which cattle are fed mechanically, or occasionally by hand, in their final stages of growth before slaughter for meat.

The feedlots usually finish the store cattle intensively over a 2-6 month period, depending on the growth potential of the cattle and market requirements.

The beef feedlots in industry in Brazil has consolidated in the last decade as an option for finishing cattle because of the increasing demand from export markets.

The number of animals finished in feedlots in Brazil increased 50% during 2000s with most of the beef produced in destined for external markets.

The feedlot systems has other names: Intensive Livestock Operation (ILO),   Confined Feeding Operation (a term used in Canada), or Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO).

The location, design and construction of a feedlot and/or a feed pad should take account of topography, climate, age and size or animals to be fed, space and feed requirements and labor and management skills available.
Feedlot system

Extensive grazing-based systems

In livestock grazing systems, there is a further distinction into three groups:
*Extensive grazing systems
*Intensive grazing systems
*Intensive landless systems

‘Extensive’ grazing-based system is where they are mainly kept in fields and may be housed for part of the year.

Extensive grazing strategies can be broadly grouped into two main categories:
*Rotational grazing, here the total rangeland is divided into intermittently grazed plots
*Continuous grazing, where animals can freely graze the whole area.

The animals used in extensive grazing regimes are those best adapted to mountainous topography and difficult feeding sources that is meat producing livestock such as cattle, sheep and goats.

Extensive grazing systems cover most the dry areas of the tropics and continental climates of central Asia, North America and western and southern Asia, in areas of low population density.

Seven percent of the world’s global beef production comes from this system and they are associated with larger farms and farmer.
Extensive grazing-based systems