Breeding goals and economic values for Nellore cattle in a full-cycle production system

Abstract

The objective of this study was to develop a bio-economic model for the estimation of economic values of economically important traits in a full-cycle beef cattle production system. The bioeconomic model calculated economic values by simulating the impact of changes in the profit of the system consisting of a 1% increase in each trait of the breeding objective, while the other traits were kept constant. The bio-economic model was effective in estimating the sources of revenues and expenses of the production system. The estimated economic values were, in the order of importance for the full-cycle system, R$ 3.69 for male slaughter weight, R$ 3.63 for male weaning weight, R$ 3.58 for weaning rate, R$ 3.40 for female slaughter weight, R$ 2.30 for female weaning weight, and R$ 0.13 for mature cow weight. The results showed that all traits evaluated in the full-cycle system had positive economic impact, indicating that selection would increase profitability maximizing the expected response for the traits of the breeding goal.

Estimation of genetic parameters for weaning and yearling weights in a composite population used to form the Purunã breed

“…Brazil has the world's second largest commercial cattle herd; it is the largest exporter and the second largest beef producer of the world, according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA, 2019). The genetic improvement has an important contribution for the beef industry (Moreira et al, 2019). The estimation of traditional breeding values using phenotypic and Estimation of genetic parameters for weaning and yearling weights in a composite population used to form... Otto et al pedigree information to predict breeding values has been very successful in beef cattle, improving the genetic progress of productive and reproductive traits (Miller, 2010).…”

Economic values of reproductive, growth, feed efficiency and carcass traits in Nellore cattle

“…15 kg of the carcass; R$ 176.3) produced was within the range (R$124.7 to R$199.2) presented in the Brazilian Beef Exporters Association (ABIEC, 2021). Feed has been reported as the most significant cost in beef cattle production in Brazil and other major producers worldwide (Moore et al, 2009;Moreira et al, 2019). In the current study, although a pasture-based operation was evaluated, feed expenses accounted for nearly half of the total…”

“…Some studies are available regarding Brazilian fullcycle production systems (i.e. cow-calf, backgrounding and finishing on the same operation) with Bos taurus indicus cattle, but they have assessed a limited number of traits (Jorge Jr et al, 2006;Moreira et al, 2019;Portes et al, 2020). In such studies, reproductive traits (e.g.…”

Selection indexes for Nellore production system in the Brazilian Pantanal

“…A positive EV for CW was also obtained by Jorge Jr. et al (2007) in a herd of 10,000 cows-the authors justified the possibility of expanding the pasture area of the property to accommodate animals with higher nutritional requirement-, and by Moreira et al (2019), who pointed out the prices of dry matter and the sale price of cows for slaughter at the time of the study as factors involved in the result. Both studies demonstrated that CW is a trait that varies according to each system and market.…”

“…Because the environment of Pantanal is unique, it was deemed desirable to generate breeding objectives for Nellore cattle specific to that biome. Such breeding objectives would contribute to meeting the need to improve production and enhance the quality of beef, which has been viewed as essential (Moreira et al, 2019). A primary challenge for the implementation of genetic improvement programs in Pantanal is an adequate definition of the ideal type of animal to be reared in the biome (Santos et al, 2008).…”