Evaluation of three different categories of beef cattle finished in feedlot

Abstract

The current work had the objective to evaluate the economic-biological performance of three different categories of beef cattle finished in a feedlot system. The study was based on data from 625 animals collected during the year of 2004. One group had 143 younger steers (YS), the other one 241 young steers (S) and the last one 241 cull cows (CC). The average weight at beginning of the feedlot (IW) was 262.0 for the YS group, 257.57 for the S group and 418.30 for the CC group, staying confined on average (ATP), for 89.0; 115.2; and 52.1 days, respectively. The average daily gain (ADG), obtained at the end of the experiment was 1.146 kg (YS), 1.075 kg (S) and 1.032 kg (CC), reporting a final average weight of 364.03; 399.53 and 472.15 kg, respectively for the three categories. The feed conversion (FC) calculated was 7.8 (YS), 8.5 (S) and 10.7 kg DM ingested/kg gain weight (CC). Data from: Purchase value/animal; Feed cost/animal; Production cost/produced kg; Total cost/sold kg; Total cost/animal; Sell value/kg; Total sell value/animal; Gross margin/animal; Profit on the period; Profit/month; Difference purchase/sell value. The younger steers obtained higher ADG and lower FC among the analyzed categories, following byyoung steers and cull cows. The profit was 17.46% YS), 24.57% (S) and 19.47% (CC). The profit/month was 5.82% for the YS group, 6.39% for the S group and 9.05% for CC the group. The results showed a higher biological efficiency for the YS group. The S group showed a higher profit on the period and the CC reached higher profit/month, obtaining higher economic return.