The world major beef producing countries are the USA (12 million tons) followed by Brazil (9 million tons) and the EU (8.1 million tons). In the EU-27 about 89 million cattle were farmed for beef and veal production (Veal calves). However, some two thirds of the beef produced is derived directly or indirectly from dairy herds. The offspring from the dairy herds that are not required for dairy replacement purposes provide a valuable stock source for many beef production systems. For instance in the UK it is estimated that 50% of the cattle used for beef production consists of calves from the national dairy herd.
Beef fattening systems in the EU member states may be divided into two main categories: ‘intensive indoor’ and ‘grass based systems’ involving winter accommodation. The diversity of beef fattening systems is influenced by the type of diets (largely related to the climatic environments) and by the different cattle breeds.
Bull Fattening
The bulls used in intensive fattening systems may have different origin. They may be derived from:
- Dairy farms (Dairy production): Male offspring from dual purpose breeds or cross-breds from a dairy cow and a beef sire are bought from dairy farms (at an age of 2 to 3 weeks up to 2 to 3 months; in the latter case calves weigh about 90-120 kg). It is important that they are already used to roughage and concentrates intake and have developed their digestive system. After 3-4 weeks on the fattening farm, the calves are weaned.
- Specialised farms rearing young beef cattle: These farms buy male calves from the dairy sector with an age of 2 to 3 months, wean them after 3-4 weeks and rear them until they have reached 150-200 kg (4 month). The calves are then sold to the fattening farms (at about 6 month of age).
- Beef suckler herds: Calves from beef breeds usually originate from suckler herds. They are left here to feed naturally until they go to fattening farms between 6 and 10 months and a live weight of 250 to 350 kg.
The fattening period lasts about 10 to 14 month. Fattening bulls have average daily weight gains of 1.200 g. The ration is mainly based on corn silage (ad libitum) and concentrates. In addition, a certain amount of roughage should also be provided in order to lower the risk for metabolic disorders. This is often supplied in the form of cereal straw.
The type of housing provided for beef bulls will depend on geographic location, availability of straw, size of fattening unit and on the traditional fattening methods. However, usually the bulls are housed in groups in pens with fully slatted concrete floors and without access to outdoor yards or pasture. Deep litter housing systems or littered sloped floor systems are more common in regions with plenty of straw available on the farms.
Welfare Issues
The welfare of intensively farmed beef bulls may be affected by a variety of housing and management factors including e.g. low roughage content in the diet, inadequate provision of water (nipple drinkers), no possibility to forage, barren and restricted housing conditions, inadequate type of floors, low space allowances and mutilations (tail docking, disbudding, dehorning). On how these factors may impair the welfare of beef cattle please refer to EU’s The Welfare Of Cattle Kept for Beef Production study.
Beef Production in Austria
The Austrian cattle population amounts to about 2 million heads including calves, heifers, cows, fattening bulls and steers (see Table ). These account for about 2 % of the total EU cattle population. The Austrian beef suckler cow population equals about 270,000 heads accounting for one third of the total number of cows in Austria.
Table 1 : Type and number of cattle in Austria in 2008
Type of cattle |
Numbers |
Young stock < 1 year |
|
Claves for slaughtering ≤ |
126,901 |
Other calves and young stock, male |
230,563 |
Other calves and young stock, female |
279,005 |
Young stock 1-< 2 years |
|
Bulls and steers |
165,478 |
Heifers for slaughtering |
64,979 |
Heifers for breeding and fattening |
200,787 |
Cattle ≥ 2 years |
|
Bulls and oxen |
16,085 |
Heifers for slaughtering |
15,351 |
Heifers for breeding and fattening |
101,378 |
Dairy cows |
530,230 |
Beef suckler cows |
266,452 |
Cattle total |
1,997,209 |
In 2008, around 610,000 cattle were slaughtered (excluding calves) in Austria. The preliminary gross domestic production in accordance with the EU definition (sum of all slaughtering and net exports of all cattle including cattle not recorded by the authorities) equalled around 593.700 (as of February 2009). The main part of beef produced in Austria comes from intensive bull fattening.
The structure of Austrian beef bull farms is described in Table 2. More than three quarters of the animals are kept in herds with less than 50 animals.
Table 2 : Structure of Austrian farms keeping male cattle (excluding bulls for breeding), 2007
Heads per farm |
Farms, 1000 head |
Cattle, 1,000 head |
||
No |
% |
No |
% |
|
1-2 |
15.7 |
39.7 |
21.3 |
6.5 |
3-9 |
14.6 |
36.8 |
76.0 |
23.3 |
10-19 |
5.6 |
14.1 |
74.8 |
22.9 |
20-29 |
1.7 |
4.3 |
39.8 |
12.2 |
30-49 |
1.1 |
2.9 |
42.3 |
13.0 |
50-99 |
0.7 |
1.8 |
49.0 |
15.0 |
100-199 |
0.2 |
0.4 |
19.6 |
5.9 |
200-299 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
2.8 |
0.9 |
300-499 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.4 |
0.1 |
≥ 500 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.7 |
0.2 |
Total |
39.6 |
100 |
326.8 |
100 |
Beef Production in the UK
Despite the problems created by various food safety scares the UK is still the 4th largest beef producer in Europe. Every year in the UK 2.2 million cattle from the beef diary and beef herds are slaughtered for their meat.
In 1998 there were 71,500 beef farms in the UK. By 2003 this number had been reduced by 17 per cent to below 69,000 and it is currently less than 50,000. Overall production recently fell below 10 million head for the first time ever and further falls are envisaged (DEFRA 2009).
Beef production in the UK is generally less intensive than in other European countries, though beef claves from the dairy herd are usually raised on intensive systems. In traditional beef suckler systems, typical of the uplands in the west of the UK, calves (both steers and heifers) stay with their mother for up to 10 months until they are fully weaned. During this period both he mother and calf will normally graze outside, before being moved inside during the winter months. Although UK beef production is less there is still a growing demand for organic beef. In 2005 there were 35,000 beef cows being reared to organic standards (DEFRA 2009). Many of the organic standards which apply to the dairy industry apply equally to the beef sector (see Brown Cow Organics and Craig Farm Organics).
