Feedlot cattle production

The influence of category on feedlot beef cattle production and nutrition has been the subject of much debate in animal production research as the literature lacks information on animal category finishing especially when it comes to cull cows. In the Cerrado region producers do not have the habit of confining cull cows as they are old and devalued animals so they are finished on pasture and sold at a low price. In view of this this study aims to show that finishing this category is feasible by making comparisons with uncastrated steers. The objective was to evaluate the feeding behavior production and economic efficiency of categories of beef cattle finished in feedlots in the Cerrado. Feeding behavior is influenced by the category of cattle showing that each animal category has different feeding management needs in order to obtain better results and that the animal category did not affect the profitability of the system despite the fact that steers generate less revenue than cull cows.