Is Cattle Farming Profitable Now? A Detailed Look at the Cost and Profit per Head and How to Improve Returns

Cattle are a native beef and draft cattle breed in China. Although they grow slowly, their meat is tender and fine, and very popular. For a long time they have held an important place in agricultural work and in meat production, being both a good partner to farmers and a beef breed much loved by people in the south. So, is cattle farming profitable now? What are the cost and profit per head? How can the returns from cattle farming be improved?

Is cattle farming profitable now?

Cattle are a domestic breed. Because they grow relatively slowly, and precisely because they grow slowly, their meat is of relatively good quality. Generally, people in the south prefer to eat cattle beef, but in today's economic and social conditions, the cattle growth cycle is too long and does not suit the requirements of the market environment, so many cattle breeds have already been improved through crossbreeding. Crossbred cattle draw on the advantages of other breeds, such as a short growth cycle, strong vitality and higher production performance, and while inheriting the useful traits of purebred cattle and discarding the rest, they are more economically competitive.

The cost and profit of cattle farming

The economic returns of cattle farming are closely related to the input-output ratio in the farming process. The farming costs fall into 3 areas: material costs, including feed costs, transport costs, medicine inputs, etc.; labor costs, including staff wages, bonuses, benefits, allowances, etc.; and manufacturing costs, including buildings, water, electricity, maintenance costs, etc.

The following is a benefit analysis based on farming 1 head of cattle as an example:

1. Cattle farming costs

Feed costs 2100 yuan, medical costs 80 yuan, calf purchase cost 40 yuan, other costs 324 yuan, labor costs 1500 yuan. The total is 8000 yuan.

2. Cattle farming profit

Assuming a market price of 30 yuan/kg and 1 head of fattened cattle at 500 kg, the gross income per head of cattle is 15000 yuan. Subtracting the above cost inputs, the profit is 15000-8000=7000 yuan.

Based on the above analysis, to truly maximize the economic returns of cattle farming, the most fundamental and most effective approach is to minimize the cost of cattle farming as much as possible.

First, the cost of introducing calves: at current market prices, buying one calf costs about 1800 yuan. If each calf can be raised to over 1300 jin before being sold, and the current market price for slaughter cattle over 1000 jin is 13 yuan per market jin, it is estimated that each head can sell for 16900 yuan.

Second, feed costs: the roughage for feeding beef cattle includes straw, distillers' grains, dried corn stalks, wheat straw, peanut straw, sweet potato vines and rice straw, etc. Calculated at a purchase price of 0.3 yuan per jin, each head of beef cattle needs 20 jin of roughage per day, that is, 6 yuan.

The fine feed needed by beef cattle each day accounts for 1% of the beef cattle's body weight, that is, every 100 jin of body weight requires 1 jin of fine feed. An average value is generally used, that is, each head is calculated at 800 jin of body weight, consuming 8 jin of fine feed. The formula is prepared with 52% cornmeal, 16% wheat bran, 25% soybean meal, 1% baking soda, 1% salt and 5%, etc. The market price is equivalent to 1.4 yuan per jin, so 8 jin requires 11.2 yuan, and the feed cost is 17.2 yuan per head per day. One head of beef cattle needs to be raised for 10 months, at 17.2 yuan per day, for 300 days of farming, requiring a total feed cost of 5160 yuan.

How can the returns from cattle farming be improved?

1. Breed influence

The first step in improving the economic returns of cattle farming is choosing excellent farming breeds. A good breed directly relates to the herd's production performance, feed conversion rate, feeding cycle, feed-to-meat ratio and so on. Breeds produced by crossbreeding local cattle with beef cattle have the characteristics of strong adaptability, a short production cycle and fast growth, and their meat quality is also greatly improved. In the Yunnan region, most crossbreeding models use Shorthorn cattle crossed with local female cattle, achieving very good economic returns. Under good farming conditions, crossbred cattle can gain an obvious 1 kg/day during the suckling period and an obvious 2 kg/day during the fattening period, raising the farming returns by 50%-80% by comparison.

2. Feeding and management factors

Feeding management holds an important place in improving the economic returns of cattle, including the management of personnel and of the cattle. 1) Management of personnel. In carrying out farming work, various means should be used to motivate staff, give full play to their enthusiasm for work, achieve “the best use of every person”, and improve the economic returns of farming. In this way, labor output can be saved on the one hand, and management costs reduced on the other. (2) Management of the cattle. A well-managed cattle farm can effectively save feed, improve the feed-to-meat ratio, and convert feed into cattle weight gain to the greatest extent; it can also effectively reduce the disease rate and save medical costs.

3. Disease prevention and control influence

Disease is a key factor restricting the development of local cattle farming, and it is precisely because of disease that cattle farming has become a high-risk industry. Judging from the current epidemic prevention facilities and technical strength, major animal diseases can be controlled and eliminated within a relatively small range; however, once an outbreak occurs, it will cause major economic losses. Many cattle farms have weak awareness of epidemic prevention, and their epidemic prevention work is blind and arbitrary, with diseases occurring constantly throughout the year and heavy losses. Therefore, prevention of infectious diseases such as cattle foot-and-mouth disease, bovine pasteurellosis, bovine mycobacteriosis and contagious pleuropneumonia must be carried out well.

4. Business management methods

At present, cattle farming mainly takes the form of small-scale raising. Its disadvantages lie in the mixing of feed, cattle breeds and cattle ages, with the result that the fattening cycle is long, fattening efficiency is low, the quality of fattened cattle is poor and the products are uncompetitive. After being sold on the market, the price is not high and the economic returns are unsatisfactory. Therefore, only by moderately expanding the farming scale can better returns be achieved.