Cattle farmers today collectively run over 28 million animals over 200 million hectares, and the industry has changed a great deal over recent decades. Ideal for beef cattle producers, beef cattle managers and farm hands, this beef cattle farming course will give you the knowledge to develop your career prospects, better manage beef cattle or improve your farm operations.

The Certificate of Beef Cattle will give you insights into the role of beef cattle in agriculture, beef cattle breeds and production systems, and beef cattle diseases, nutrition and breeding. You will also study commercial herd, feed lot and stud herd management, and marketing and economics in the beef cattle industry.

Learning Outcomes

Outcomes achieved by undertaking a beef cattle farming course include:

• Learning about beef cattle, beef cattle breeds and the role of beef cattle in agriculture
• Exploring scientific classification, examples of breeds worldwide including British breeds – Angus, Hereford, South Devon, Sussex and Red Poll
• Gaining an understanding of US developed beef breeds – Santa Gertrudis, American Brahman, Amerifax and Beefmaster
• Studying European Beef breeds – Salers, Charolais, Simmental and Gelbvieh
• Examining Australian Beef breeds – Braford, Beefmaster, Droughtmaster, Murray Grey and Australian Lowline
• Understanding South African Beef Breeds – Salorn, Tswana, Tuli and Africkander
• Attaining knowledge of breed selection considerations – horned vs poll, colour, gestation length, birth weight, mothering ability, post weaning growth, meat quality etc.
• Gaining insights into various systems of production (extensive, intensive and semi-intensive) and how to choose a suitable system – considerations include size, climate, soils, transport, markets etc.
• Learning about cattle handling facilities and materials used in cattle handling
• Exploring cattle identification (branding, ear marking, tattooing, ear tags) and de-horning (chemical and mechanical methods)
• Gaining an understanding of castrations, dips and dipping and injecting cattle
• Studying beef cattle breeding including heritability, performance testing, progeny testing and selection, pure versus cross breeding, calving percentage and management factors to improve calving percentage
• Gaining an understanding of vitamins, water for farm animals and protein
• Studying commercial herd management, the breeding herd and production systems
• Examining cow-calf herd and beef production systems using dairy stock
• Understanding lot feeding – types of feedlot
• Attaining knowledge of managing cattle in a feedlot
• Gaining insights into feedlot records
• Learning about pen feeding in South Africa
• Exploring stud herd management
• Gaining an understanding of calving time, feeding and fertility
• Studying indicators of fertility in cows and bulls
• Examining management, economics and marketing
• Understanding profitability
• Attaining knowledge of the factors affecting gross output and variable costs

And more!

Australia’s Beef Industry – Fast Facts

Here are some interesting beef cattle farming statistics published in 2020 in a report by Meat & Livestock Australia.

• The domestic expenditure plus export value including live export of the Australian beef industry was approximately $20.2 billion in 2019.
• There are over 45,000 agricultural businesses involved in the cattle industry.
• There were over 24.7 million head of cattle in Australia as of June 2019.
• There were over 11.7 million head of heifers and beef cows aged over a year in the 2018 to 2019 period.
• Over 189,000 people are employed in the red meat industry, including in the areas of retail, processing and on-farm production.
• In 2018 to 2019, Australia produced approximately 2.4 million tonnes of carcass weight (cwt) of beef and veal produced.
• In 2019, three million grained cattle were marketed.
• The gross value of Australian cattle and calf production in 2019 to 2020 was over $15 billion.
• Cattle are estimated to have contributed 23 per cent of total farm value of $66.5 billion in 2019 to 2020.
• Domestic expenditure on beef was approximately $7.8 billion in 2019.
• Australians ate over 25 kilograms of beef per person in 2018 to 2019.
• National cattle numbers as of June 2019 were 11.3 million in Queensland, 4 million in New South Wales, 3.6 million in Victoria, 2.1 million in the Northern Territory, 2 million in Western Australia, 1 million in South Australia and 0.7 million in Tasmania.
• Australian beef and veal production figures in terms of percentage are Queensland (58 per cent), New South Wales (26 per cent), Victoria (seven per cent), Western Australia (five per cent) and South Australia (four per cent).
• Australian lofted cattle turn-off in terms of percentages are Queensland (58 per cent), New South Wales (26 per cent), Victoria (seven per cent), Western Australia (five per cent) and South Australia (four per cent).
• In 2019, Australia exported 76 per cent of its total beef and veal production.
• The value of total beef and veal exports in 2019 was over $10.8 billion.
• Australian live cattle exports were valued at $1.6 billion in 2018 to 2019 with 1.3 million exported.
• Australia top five beef and veal exports are China (27 per cent), Japan (23 per cent), the US (21 per cent), South Korea (13 per cent) and Indonesia (five per cent).
• Australian top live cattle exports (including dairy cattle) are Indonesia (52 per cent), Vietnam (21 per cent), China (12 per cent), Israel (six per cent) and Russia (three per cent).
• Australia has approximately two per cent of the world’s cattle herd and is the second largest beef exporter in the world behind Brazil.

Cattle Breeds

The beef cattle industry has changed a great deal over recent decades. Quality beef is increasing in demand and the way beef is raised and marketed is continually changing. Anyone involved in beef cattle farming needs to be aware of changes in the industry, but also about the different cattle breeds.

Different breeds have different characteristics, and depending upon what the cattle will be used for, there will different benefits with different breeds. Today, cow breeds can be broken up into four main purpose types — beef (meat), dairy, draft, and multi-purpose (beef-draft, dairy-draft, beef-dairy and beef-dairy-draft).

Many of the older breeds were bred as duel-purpose or multi-purpose cattle. However, today most of the newer breeds are used for one purpose. And they are more efficient at this specific purpose, for example, beef cow breeds still produce milk but they are nowhere near as efficient as the dairy cow breeds. Some breeds also tolerate certain conditions better than others, while other breeds are more desirable because of the characteristics that are found in the milk or meat.

Most people assume that the naming of cattle species and breeds is a single system, which every cattle expert in the world will subscribe to. But this is not the case. There are, in fact, many different authorities around the world who manage the naming of cattle, and these different “experts” don’t always agree with each other.

Commercial breeders and farmers also manage a range of systems for classifying and registering breeds of cattle. These systems attempt to keep records of the parentage of progeny and assign names to breeds. These breed registries are at times also known as a “herd books” or “stud books”. They may be managed by government or industry bodies; and may or may not work together with other breed registries across regional or international borders. Sometimes the same breeds may end up being known by different names in different countries and sometimes new breeds are developed, but may not be formally registered.

Most developed countries tend to have widely-accepted authorities for registering breeds of cattle in their country, and as a result, the naming of breeds tends to be relatively consistent at least within that country. Sometimes a breed known by one name in one developed country though, may be known by a different name in another developed country. Despite seeming confusing, the use of both may be valid, depending upon the country you are using the name in. Good breed registries will commonly issue registration papers showing details of the animal’s parentage and there are over 800 credible breeds of cattle registered around the world.

 

Understand the principles and practices of beef cattle husbandry and be able to make informed decisions about the management requirements of beef cattle with a beef cattle farming course like our  Certificate of Beef Cattle.