A bio-economic model to improve profitability in a large national beef cattle population

Abstract

A bio-economic model was developed for estimating economic values for use in improving profitability in a large national beef cattle population from birth to slaughter. Results were divided into fattening costs, production costs and income. Economic values were derived for 17 traits for two regions, mature weight (-0.43 € and -0.38 €/+1 kg of live weight), age at first calving (-0.13 € and -0.11 €/+1d), calving interval (-1.06 € and -1.02 €/+1d), age at last calving (0.03 € and 0.03 €/+1d), mortality 0-48 h (-5.86 € and -5.63 €/1% calves per cow and year), pre-weaning mortality (-5.96 € and -5.73 €/+1% calves per cow and year), fattening mortality (-8.23 € and -7.88 €/+1% calves per cow and year), adult mortality (-8.92 € and -7.34 €/+1% adult cows per cow and year), pre-weaning average daily gain (2.56 € and 2.84 €/+10g/d), fattening young animals average daily gain (2.65 € and 3.00 €/+10g/d), culled cow in fattening average daily gain (0.25 € and 0.16 €/+10g/d), culled cow dressing carcass percentage (3.09 € and 2.42 €/+1%), culled cow price (4.59 € and 3.59 €/+0.06 €/kg), carcass conformation score (16.39 € and 15.3 €/+1 SEUROP class), dressing carcass rate of calf (18.22 € and 18.23 €/+1%), carcass growth (9.00 € and 10.09 €/+10g of carcass weight/d) and age at slaughter (0.27 € and 0.44 €/+1d). Two sample herds were used to show the economic impact of calving interval and age at first calving shortening in the profit per slaughtered young animal, which was 178 € and 111 € for Herds A and B, respectively. The economic values of functional traits were reduced and production traits were enhanced when fertility traits were improved. The model could be applied in a Spanish national program.

Expected consequences of including methane footprint into the breeding goals in beef cattle. A Spanish Blonde d'Aquitaine population as a case of study

“…Economic weights in the selection indices for each scenario were derived from a bioeconomic model based on López‐Paredes, Jiménez‐Montero, Pérez‐Cabal, González‐Recio, and Alenda (). The three scenarios were:…”

“…A profit function was developed expressing benefits in €/slaughtered calf/year (López‐Paredes et al., ) calculated as incomes minus costs as follows: where I is the income per slaughtered calf at fixed age at slaughter, FAT is the fattening cost of calves in feedlot to meet energy requirements at fixed age at slaughter, PROD is the production cost per slaughtered calf, including feeding cost of heifers, cows and culled cows to meet their energy requirements minus income per culled cow carcass at sale, c s is 365/AS, EM C is expressed in €/per slaughtered calf/year calculated as the cost of M calf and M cow with a carbon tax value ( t ) per kg of CH 4 as: …”

Influence of age at first calving in a continuous calving season on productive, functional, and economic performance in a Blonde d’Aquitaine beef population1

“…The estimated heritability of 0.17 and its economic importance (López-Paredes et al, 2017) indicated that AFC should be included in a maternal/replacement index to select for improved profit. This heritability is similar to that shown by Caetano et al (2013), Boligon et al (2010), and Boligon and Albuquerque (2011) in Nellore cattle and less than the 0.23 reported by Goyache and Gutierrez (2001), the 0.28 reported by Minick-Bormann (2010), and the 0.31 reported by Berry and Evans (2014).…”

“…Gutiérrez et al (2002) reported a positive correlation of 0.23 between CI and AFC, which is similar to the 0.14 found in this study. The economic value of AFC is −$0.192/d (−0.16€/d) per young animal slaughtered (López-Paredes et al, 2017). This amounts to −$5.676 (−4.73€) per young animal slaughtered per unit of additional variance of AFC (27 d) and phenotypic deviation (163 d; Table 3).…”

“…The economic impact of the AFC was calculated using the profit function developed by López-Paredes et al (2017). Profit (PROFa) in U.S. dollars per slaughtered young animal per year was calculated as PROFa = c s × (I s − FAT − PROD), in which c s is 365/age at slaughter, I s is income per slaughtered young animal, FAT is the average fattening cost per slaughtered young animal, and PROD is the averaged production cost per slaughtered young animal.…”