Brazil Part 3 - Cattle

I hate to admit it but I’ve never been a big fan of Bos Indicus type cattle.  I find them interesting to look at but rather unattractive.  Not that I have a lot of experience with eared cattle but I’ve run into a fair amount on my travels through Australia over the years.  My opinion has changed though since spending some time looking at the Nelore breed in Brazil these past few days.  These cattle are absolutely beautiful and any of you reading this who are not cattle people are probably laughing at me right now but it is true. Brazil is the largest breeder of Nelore cattle, and I had the opportunity to see both commercial and purebred operations.  

Crossbreeding Nelore with Angus is becoming very popular here and seeing results of it made it clear to me and to the people who are doing it.  It gives the beef producers here the best of hybrid vigour with an improvement in meat quality and heat and tick resistance of the breed.  The Angus animals have adapted to the heat here quite well and the breed is moving north through Brazil quickly.  I was told 50% of all semen sold in Brazil is now Angus.  

It is a completely pasture based system and tropical grasses are supplemented with ryegrass and/or oats during the winter months.  These tropical grasses in summer can produce 20% protein and are low maintenance aside from a little fertilizer requirements.  Corn and soybean meal is also used as a supplement but more often on dairy herds than beef.  Irrigation is also being used on beef pastures to improve the stocking rates on rotational grazing system pastures.  

Most cattle are finished on pasture but there are some feedlots around using corn, soybeans, orange pulp and even peanut meal to finish the cattle at a quicker rate.  Animals are sold by the @, which is equal to 15 kg and typically directly to the abattoir. 

A purebred Angus farm that we visited sells between 140 - 150 bulls each year and there is a waiting list for their animals.  They use American and Argentinian genetics to get the size of animal they desire, many of their bulls are also being collected for AI at a São Paulo collection facility.  They use 30 purebred cows and flush them extensively to get all the calves.  Hair can be a problem and when we arrived on the farm, our host was in the process of shaving a bull who had about 2 inches of hair on him. Short hair is an advantage here.