The profitability of forage options for beef production in the subtropics of northern Australia

Abstract

Forage biomass production, diet quality, cattle liveweight (LW) gain, and economic performance were measured for 6 forage types across 21 sites on 12 commercial beef cattle properties in the Fitzroy River catchment of Queensland during 2011-2014 (28 annual data sets in total). Sown perennial legume-grass or annual forages resulted in 1.2-2.6 times the annual cattle LW gain per ha than perennial grass pastures. However, there was no correlation between annual cattle LW gain per ha and gross margin. Furthermore, neither forage establishment and management costs nor cattle price margin (sale price less purchase price, $/kg LW) were correlated with gross margin. The average gross margins were higher for legume-grass pastures than for annual forage crops or perennial grass pastures. This was the result of the combined effects of lower average forage costs and high cattle productivity.