Peformance of Commercial Feedlots, Cattle, and Employees, 1980 to 1994

Abstract

Fifteen years (1980 to 1994) of data from the Texas Panhandle trade area of the commercial cattle feeding industry, representing an average of 756,000 head of cattle on-feed from 28 feedlots per month, was used to document performance of cattle and feedlots and establish employee characteristics. Cattle were fed for an average of 155 d with an ADG of 2.76lb and a feed DM:gain ratio of 6.99. Death loss averaged 1.54% with a medical cost of $6.52 per head. Feedlot utilization averaged 75%, requiring $5,208 per 1000 head of cattle per month to operate, with 36.5% of operating expenses represented as fulltime labor expense. These feedlots required 1.3 employees per 1000 head of cattle per month and milled 330 tons of feed per 1000 head of cattle per month, or 22lb of feed DM fed per head per day with an average cost of $0.10/mcal of NEg. Year × sex of cattle and year × season interactions (P<0.03) were major factors influencing cattle performance.