Main sources of the economic efficiency of beef cattle production systems

The economic efficiency of several beef production systems on pasture was investigated under different marketing strategies. All calculations were carried out with the computer program ECOWEIGHT. None of the considered production systems was profitable without government subsidies for the assumed economic input values. The subsidies granted when satisfying a set of conditions served for balancing the economic loss in systems selling all surplus weaned calves outside. A profitability of 10 to 25% was reached for this marketing strategy in dependence on the production system. When integrating feedlot, only the purebred system with mating female replacement at an early age (about 15 months) and selling breeding bulls showed profitability, but at a low level (5%). All other systems produced at a loss even when government subsidies were included. A detailed analysis showed a high variability of the profit and profitability of cow-calf production systems in dependence on breeding and marketing strategies and on the level of the biological and economic input parameters. When considering biological performance, reproduction of females was shown to be the main source of economic efficiency in herds producing calves for sale. When applying feedlot, the daily gain in fattening was even more important. Beef prices seem to be the most important economic factor influencing the profitability of all systems (prices for slaughtered animals in the variant with integrated feedlot, prices for calves in the variant with selling of weaned surplus progeny).