Finishing cattle with supplements at pasture

Le résumé fourni par la source

INTRODUCTION The Australian beef industry suffers from a marked seasonality of supply and variation in product quality. This poses major problems for meat processors trying to develop product branding and year round supply for both domestic and export consumers. The processors also have problems caused by underutilization of meat works for a portion of the year. In 1994 and 1995, beef exports made up 64% of Australian production. Since the liberalization of the Japanese market in 1988, there has been a shift in emphasis from the US market to the Japanese and Asian markets with a corresponding shift in emphasis towards high quality table beef. Lot feeding facilitates the production of beef all year round but has a number of problems including cost of production and competition from other exporting nations. Feedlotters also need to address a range of animal welfare and environmental issues which may affect consumer demand. There is a clear demand for high quality pasture fed beef. There is a range of markets, each with a different specification. Forward contracts for slaughter stock, which have been developed in some states, are an effective means of communicating market specifications to producers and removing some of the risk associated with “out of season” production. The work described in this contract demonstrates a range of cost effective options, based on feeding at pasture, for meeting these specifications in different production environments.

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