Technical and environmental characterization of Colombian beef cattle-fattening farms, with a focus on farm size and ways of improving production

Abstract

<jats:p> In Colombia, cattle-fattening farms account for 20.7% of the Colombian cattle herd and play an important role in terms of economic and social benefits for rural communities. However, few characterization studies have been conducted on these production systems, which limit our understanding of their production dynamics and environmental impacts. This study aimed to characterize very small, small, medium, and large cattle-fattening farms from technical and environmental perspectives. The data analyzed were obtained from the Ganadería Colombiana Sostenible and the LivestockPlus projects, which gathered information from a total of 2618 farms, classified according to their cattle production orientation. From those, 275 cattle-fattening farms were classified as being either very small (1–30 bovines), small (31–50 bovines), medium (51–250 bovines), or large farms (more than 251 bovines). Numerical and categorical variables were distributed into five components: (1) general farm information, (2) composition and management of the herd, (3) pasture management, (4) production information, and (5) environmental information. Each component was analyzed using the factorial analysis of mixed data (FAMD) method. According to FAMD, for the components general farm information, herd composition and management, pasture management, and production information, distribution of variables led to a spatial separation of the centroid from each category of producers. For the component environmental information, there was no separation of the centroid. Better infrastructure, machinery and equipment, better pasture management, and better productive parameters and practices were observed in larger farms. This suggests that those public policies aimed at improving productive and environmental performance of the livestock sector should give priority to small- and medium-sized livestock producers considering their farm characteristics. </jats:p>

Yield gap analysis to identify attainable milk and meat productivities and the potential for greenhouse gas emissions mitigation in cattle systems of Colombia

“…The survey was completed for 1762 cattle farms and provided information on: (a) characteristics of the farms; (b) herd structure and cattle managerial practices; (c) grazing land managing practices; (d) cattle production and reproduction information; (e) environmental management activities. The criteria used for selecting the farms, and the numerical and categorical variables included in the surveys are described in detail by González-Quintero et al (2020b). As an initial step, the database was cleaned and validated, which resulted in a dataset of ii) Lack of farm area data; iii) Farms belonging to full-cycle productive orientation, which are those farms that develop breeding, fattening, and finishing activities, and that are out of the scope of this study ; and iv) Farms for which meat or milk yield exceeded 3 standard deviations from the mean in each production zone (see description in the next section).…”

“…Beef production in Colombia is composed of cow-calf and fattening systems accounting for 39 and 20% of the national livestock inventory, respectively (Fedegan, 2018; Ministerio de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural, 2019). These production orientations usually implement traditional-extensive and improved-extensive pasture based systems, cattle are permanently grazed over large plots of grasslands, with a low stocking rate, and their diets are mainly composed of native forage species with a little proportion of introduced forages, which has contributed to the low cattle yields (Barahona et al, 2003;González-Quintero et al, 2020b, 2020cMahecha-Ledesma et al, 2002). Milk is produced in dual-purpose (DPS) and specialized dairy cattle systems, which contribute to 55 and 45% of national milk production and account for the 35 and 6% of the total cattle population, respectively (Fedegan, 2018; Ministerio de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural, 2019).…”

“…The variables used in the FAMD exercise were both qualitative and quantitative and based on previous studies characterizing cattle farms in Latin America (Albarrán-Portillo et al, 2015;Cuevas-Reyes and Rosales-Nieto, 2018;González-Quintero et al, 2020a, 2020bRangel et al, 2020). The qualitative variables captured pasture management practices, e.g., the existence of improved pastures and silvopastoral systems, type of pastoral system (alternate, rotational, in strips) and weeding method (chemical, manual, mechanical, mixed), fertilization, application of amendments to soils.…”

Near-Infrared Spectroscopy as a Beef Quality Tool to Predict Consumer Acceptance

“…Between 15 and 20 steers aged 24 to 36 months were chosen daily, using a convenience sampling method, on nonconsecutive days, until 200 steers had been selected for the final sample. The steers came from fattening production systems characterized by grazing management, a high proportion of naturalized pasture (80% of the area), and low use of concentrate as informed by González-Quintero et al [26]., The phenotypic characterization was undefined crossbreed between Bos indicus and with Bos Taurus. Steers were slaughtered in an inspected slaughterhouse in Medellin City, and after two days, meat products were shipped under refrigerated conditions to retail facilities.…”

Evaluación de atributos cárnicos y de calidad de la canal en ganado Blanco Orejinegro

“…No obstante, el sistema de producción primaria presenta alta heterogeneidad en prácticas de manejo a escala de finca, lo cual influye negativamente en el potencial de producción cárnica (Camacho et al, 2009). Además, la base genética destinada a producción de carne es poco especializada y posee bajos indicadores productivos y reproductivos, lo cual limita la competitividad del sistema de producción cárnico frente a los referentes locales e internacionales (González et al, 2019). Una de las alternativas que podría tener un impacto significativo en la competitividad del sistema productivo cárnico en Colombia es la diferenciación de producto.…”