In order to start a business in meat (beef) cattle breeding) you have to invest about 6 million rubles. And only after five, or even seven years, you will be able to reach a serious level, declaring yourself as a major player.
Beef cattle market
Observers and experts notice an outflow from beef cattle to the crop sector. This picture is observed everywhere.
What is so attractive to former meat producers in crop production?
First of all. Not year-round employment. If in the industry of meat cattle breeding it is necessary to work throughout the year and daily, then in crop production there are two suffering - sowing and harvesting.
The outflow of farmer entrepreneurs from the livestock sector speaks of problems and obstacles in this industry. They really are.
Government intervention in the pricing process,
lack of a clear system of benefits,
imported beef (low quality),
high and ever-increasing feed prices.
The small producer is particularly affected: it is absolutely unprofitable (in the current situation) to compete with imports, as well as with large (and therefore high-tech) farms.
Indeed, large and medium-sized livestock farms are increasingly crowding out small producers.
Pasture land in beef cattle breeding
Before you start to engage in beef cattle breeding, you must make sure that you are standing firmly on pasture land. If in the region where such lands (arable and pasture) are approximately equally divided (or arable land prevail), then cattle breeding is unprofitable and unreasonable.
The theory and practice of beef cattle breeding suggests: in order to raise boobyons for meat for their own benefit, there should be good pasture lands around them, which are called natural fodder lands.
In simple terms, this means one thing: almost the whole year (60 percent of the annual time), your cows will feed for FREE, eating what grows on natural pastures.
If you, deprived of pasture, invest in artificial or imported food, then your cows will be gold, they will “eat” all your money, instead of making a profit.
The cost of pasture feed, of course, is not absolutely free. But it is so low that the presence of such a pasture simply obliges you to engage in beef cattle breeding. Indeed, it is the low cost of feed that directly affects the cost of meat.
However ... In addition to pasture lands, the pastoralist also needs arable land - there he will grow winter food for his animals: turnips, lumpy varieties of cereals, receive - hay, silage, straw.
One cow and its one calf require from one to one and a half hectares of pasture and exactly the same arable land.
Let's calculate the necessary amount of land in hectares for the cattle breeding business per 100 cows, there are one hundred calves and three bulls. They need a total of about 300 hectares of land (150 hectares of arable land and 150 hectares of pasture land).
An enterprise with 100 cows (plus several bulls) will receive the first income for the third year, and will pay off for about five years.
Why do you need to become a breeding factory?
Remember two terms: a breeding plant and a breeding reproducer.
Everyone involved in beef cattle breeding is trying to get this title and status as soon as possible. For what? This status gives entrepreneurs the right to receive high subsidies, which are allocated by the state precisely for raising pedigree cows.
The State Attestation Commission, after verification, assigns this status to farms.
35 breeding cows is a breeding reproducer,
100 cows is a breeding plant.
Many players and experts even advise you to immediately enter the business in the status of a pedigree factory by purchasing a herd of 100 pedigree cows and submitting documents for status assignment.
Some simply buy existing farms with this status.
The size of the farm in beef cattle
To keep one hundred cows, their calves and bulls, you will need two standard farms (two rooms) measuring 70 x 20 meters, plus a “walking” platform, plus silos, plus silos plus silo packing plants.
An important feature: these rooms (farms) do not need heating in winter! However, they need low humidity (and, more simply, dryness) and no drafts.
One hundred cows is a small herd. Mechanization of feed is carried out only when the number of livestock exceeds three hundred. And this means that if your herd will consist of only one hundred cows (plus their calves plus bulls), then the feed will have to be fed manually.
Beef cattle breeding: How much forage should be procured for the winter?
You will have to harvest one hundred percent of the amount of feed recommended in the textbooks plus another 30 percent from the top. Feed consumption in winter varies in one direction or another and depends on conditions such as: weather and the condition of the herd as a whole. In addition, do not forget that from 15 to 20 percent of the food prepared for the winter will deteriorate - this is a normal figure. Which is always taken into account when harvesting hay for the winter.
Cattle breeding: offspring rate
It is imperative that every cow you have brings exactly one calf per year. Otherwise, you will work at a loss.
Calves brought by cows must reach a weight of 400 to 450 kilograms by the age of one year and two months.
For this, each calf must gain in weight at least one, or even one and a half kilograms every day (daily gain). If calves do not gain weight per kilogram per day, then production begins to be unprofitable.
How to rationalize and save in beef cattle?
To do this, they think of calving for the period from February to April. Then the calves go to the pasture (I recall - free feed!) In late April and May. Then calves do not need to be fed with expensive food. However, in the case of a crop failure of forage grasses, calves must be fed; for this, mineral-protein mixtures are used.
Foreseen expenses of beef cattle breeding
In the second year of your breeding factory, the first calving of cows will take place.
And this means that you will need a second farm, new staff in the state.
In the third year of operation, feed costs are doubled.
Livestock farming is considered a business with a low entry threshold. It is also considered a simple and highly profitable business. Only the rotation of sunflower and rapeseed argues with him ...
But since all the niches of the “easiest and most profitable” crop production are already occupied, and the land is depleted, you can try your hand at beef cattle breeding.
Nazarenko Elena
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