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The influence of major cost items on the total production cost of beef cattle during the growing phase was evaluated. A mathematical model assessing production inputs considering the cost of the items according to the Economic Theory was used. Costs were allocated into: A) variable costs, B) fixed costs, and C) factor income. A survey was carried-out in 2018 and 2019 with a rancher located in the state of Minas Gerais (Brazil) aiming to define the major technical indicators of production. The spot prices used in the current analysis refered to December 2019. The base-animal used during the growing phase represented the Nelore breed (Bos indicus), intact males and females (n = 34), separated into three lots according to the ranch of origin and sex. The initial averaging 195 ± 15 kg of live shrunk BW (body weight), and the average selling weight was 360 ± 15 kg shrunk BW. Two types of supplementations were offered during the year, the mineral was provided for 150 d, and protein supplementation was offered for 210 d. In the base scenario, the production cost was US$ 1.13/kg of animal. The fixed cost of the activity represents 23% of the total cost, in which capital depreciation, equipment maintenance, and labor represented 7.1%, 6.7%, and 5.9%, respectively. The variable cost of the activity represented 66.3% of total costs, in which cattle purchase price and feed costs represented 58.8% and 7.1%, respectively. These two factors, cattle purchase price, and feed costs, can be directly related to the success or failure of the system, thus also becoming good variables to be closely managed, justifying the importance of current elasticity analyses in such items. The price elasticity of items involving production cost variability in case a total expenditure cost of such items increased by 1% was hypothesized. The input costs that most represented the total cost were in order: 1) cattle purchase price, 2) feed, 3) capital depreciation, 4) labor, and 5) equipment maintenance. The cattle purchase price represented in the elasticity analysis as the most impactful factor, followed by equipment maintenance, feed, depreciation, and labor, at +0.54%, +0.11%, +0.07%, +0.07%, +0.05%, respectively. The cattle purchase price was the most related to the total cost. The increases of 1% in this variable caused variations of +0.54% of the total cost. It means the cost of production of 1 kg of beef cattle goes from US$ 1.13/kg to US$ 1.74/kg. In conclusion, the power of negotiation when buying and selling animals was the factor that can influence the most total costs of the cattle enterprise assessed.

A mathematical model to estimate: a) the cost of beef cattle production in grazing systems; and b) the environmental sustainability of production systems using the Emergy Synthesis Model was evaluated. All items were considered and allocated, according to the precepts of the Economic Theory, under Fixed Cost (FC), Variable Cost (VC), and Total Cost (TC). The model estimated costs in the case-study for the entire property and the different production lots within the same property. Costs were allocated per animal and per kg of beef cattle produced. The total cost per animal of cattle produced was US$ 416.86. It was observed that the VC represented 66% of the TC. The cattle purchase price, including under VC, was the factor that represented the most significant portion of the production cost, in which the current operation reached 59% of the TC. Therefore, the currently developed tool may be used to facilitate understanding and potentially help to manage risk and profit. To examine from the environmental point of view, the synthesis of emergy was utilized. Emergy is the memory of the available energy used directly and indirectly to produce a service or product. It was observed that the property considered in the current case-study showed a renewability of 47.6%, indicating that less than one-half of all the energy used came from renewable resources. The emergetic yield ratio (EYR), which measures how much natural energy was incorporated into produced goods or services, was 1.91. The survey showed that the emergetic exchange ratio (EER), which indicates how balanced the exchange ratio between the energy in products and the energy gross revenue, was 12.45, showing that the system delivers much more energy than it receives in a monetary form. It seems like the current system analysis was highly dependent on cost-effective resources. The fuel used for pasture management services was the non-renewable resource that mostly affected the design. For the emergy synthesis, such input represented 51.2% of the total energy used, but from the economic point of view, such resource represented only 1% of the total production cost. The system could be less dependent on market variability if good pasture management practices were adopted, such as using a reasonable pasture stocking rate. By using the emergy indexes, it was possible to analyze the cattle system from an environmental perspective, allowing to assist technology/technique adoptions capable of increasing the sustainability indicators, which has been recently valued by worldwide beef consumers.