Financial performance and opportunistic commercialization of beef production systems in southern Brazil

This study compares the technical and financial performance of different beef cattle production systems and assesses the opportunistic commercialization practiced in these systems. It was evaluated data from four production units located in southern Brazil: cow-calf in native pastures (CCNP; 1,155 ha; 1,529 animals); cow-calf with agriculture (CCA; 1,008 ha; 1,313 animals); rearing-fattening (RFU; 360 ha; 435 animals); and fattening (FU; 205 ha; 168 animals) as well as an integrated system simulating the physical and economic parameters of the four units (IAS; 2,728 ha; 3,445 animals). The four independent units were considered as opportunistic commercialization and IAS as non-opportunistic. The highest yield was obtained for RFU (297 kg/ha), followed by IAS (114 kg/ha), FU (98 kg/ha), CCNP (87 kg/ha), and CCA (83 kg/ha). The CCNP was the most economically efficient, considering the gross margin per kilogram (GM/kg) (US$ 0.93). The GM/kg value of IAS (US$ 0.74) was 37 % higher compared to the sum of the average of the four units (US$ 0.54), and IAS had the lowest total production costs per kg (22.5 %). It was concluded that each independent unit could increase GM/kg (37 %) and GM/ha (3.8 %) and use calves in a rearing-fattening unit for further sale. Hence, the integration of beef production systems increases the gross margin of firms, presenting a profitable business advantage to rural entrepreneurs through non-opportunistic commercialization.