| This study evaluated two management practices for beef production in the province of Ontario: (1) seasonal calving practice (summer calving versus the traditional winter calving) and (2) fall feeding practice (fall pasture stockpiling versus the traditional fall confinement feeding). Superimposed on each of these two management practices, four marketing alternatives for the saleable progeny were evaluated: (1) Weaned calves (approximately 7 months of age, (2) Yearling calves, (3) Calves at 15 months, and (4) calves at 18 months.;Two methods (simple enterprise budget and linear programming model) were used to evaluate these production practices and marketing alternatives. Simple enterprise budgets were designed to compare the sixteen practices (including the traditional and modified practices). The LP model, however, incorporated all the different beef production options and four calf marketing alternatives to seek out the most competitive beef production practice. Thirteen different scenarios were also evaluated to ascertain the competitiveness of production practices and levels of profitability based on changes in key variable costs.;In general, summer calving and fall stockpiling were more profitable than traditional winter calving and fall confinement feeding practice. Furthermore, retaining calves to a later marketing stage will bring higher returns to farmers. The combination of summer calving with fall stockpiling management and selling calves at 18 months gave the highest net returns of all the practices considered. |
