Input Requirements for Cattle Feedlot Industry Volume 1: Summary & Strategies

Summary

The feedlot industry in Australia has two distinct sub-sectors - the formal sector represented by the major feedlots (over 500 head) and an informal or opportunity sector comprising smaller feedlots often integrated with grain production as a farm enterprise. In terms of animal numbers, the formal sector with 1.18 million head annual throughput accounts for 59% of the estimated 2.0 million cattle which were grainfed in 1994 in Australia. The informal or opportunity feedlot sector has not been surveyed and its size and performance is largely unknown. It supplies both the domestic and overseas markets directly but it also supplies the formal feedlot sector with some unfinished cattle. The feedlots in the informal sector compete with the formal sector for access to inputs. Both sectors of the feedlot industry have grown very rapidly in response to two major changes in the demand for beef. The first and dominant change has been the Iiberalisation of the market in Japan and the second has been the move to domestic consumption of grainfed or grain-finished beef as a means of improving consumer satisfaction with beef.

At present, the Japanese market accounts for about 62% (733,000 cattle out of the estimated total of 1,183,000) of the cattle being turned off from the formal feedlot sector. (Data are unavailable for the informal sector). The domestic market for cattle that are fed at least 70 days accounts for a further 33% (394,000 hd) of the turnoff. The .remaining 56,000 cattle of the 1.18 million cattle that are turned off in the formal feedlot sector are directed to the small but growing market in Korea. An increasing number of grassfed cattle are also partly grain-finished, particularly under poor seasonal conditions. We estimate that some 249,000 head of the so-called grassfed cattle turnoff may be partly grain-finished 'ilt present. Feedlotting has provided the opportunity for greater specialisation in beef production in Australia and this has improved the overall efficiency of the beef production systems of Australia. Under adverse conditions such as those now experienced over most of the continent, feedlots have provided outlets for cattle that might otherwise have been unsaleable.