牛肉商业：了解真正提高澳大利亚牛群效率的因素 The Business of Beef Understanding What Really Drives Efficiency in an Australian Beef Herd

The Business of Beef: Understanding What Really Drives Efficiency in an Australian Beef Herd

牛肉商业：了解真正提高澳大利亚牛群效率的因素

Ian McLean & Sally Finch, Bush AgriBusiness Pty Ltd, 19/01/2024

来自布什农业商业有限公司Ian McLean & Sally Finch，2024 年1月19 日的报道

“The Business of Beef” is a regular series produced by the Bush Agribusiness team for Beef Central readers.

《牛肉生意》是布什农业企业团队为《牛肉中心》读者制作的定期系列丛书。

EFFICIENCY is a critical factor in modern agriculture. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the livestock industry, where optimising resource use is essential for economic and environmental sustainability. Feed efficiency is gaining more and more traction and for some cattle producers, it is now a central concern. The term refers to the amount of feed required to produce a given amount of beef. In other words, how effectively can cattle convert grass into beef? Thus, it can also be referred to as productivity which is maximising beef production from a given feed resource and therefore can be improved by reducing the inputs (feed) or increasing the outputs (production).

效率是现代农业的关键因素。这一点在畜牧业中最为明显，优化资源利用对于经济和环境的可持续发展至关重要。饲料效率越来越受到关注，对于一些养牛生产者来说，它现在是一个核心问题。该术语是指生产一定数量的牛肉所需的饲料量。换句话说，牛如何有效地将草转化为牛肉？因此，它也可以被称为最大化给定饲料资源的牛肉产量的生产力，因此可以通过减少投入（饲料）或增加产出（产量）来提高。

There are two critical and related questions regarding feed efficiency for commercial producers;should priority be given to reducing the inputs (feed intake) or increasing the outputs (production)?should the focus be on selecting for productive herds or feed efficient animals? There has been a lot of research done in this area, which we have drawn on in this article. In doing our research for this article, a Head Shepherd podcast interview with Professor Wayne Pitchford was very useful and we recommend it to readers. A list of published papers we used in preparation for this article is included at the end of the article.

对于商业生产者来说，关于饲料效率有两个关键且相关的问题：应该优先减少投入（采食量）还是增加产出（产量）？重点应该是选择高生产力的畜群还是饲养高效的动物？在这个领域已经进行了大量的研究，我们在本文中借鉴了这些研究。在我们为本文进行研究的过程中，Head Shepherd播客对Wayne Pitchford 教授的采访非常有用，我们向读者推荐它。我们在准备本文时使用的已发表论文列表包含在文章末尾。

Measuring feed efficiency

测量饲料效率

At an individual animal level, feed efficiency is expressed as residual feed intake (RFI) or net feed intake (NFI). It is calculated by measuring an animal’s actual feed intake and comparing it to its estimated intake, based on its physiological factors (size, growth rate, reproduction etc.). Animals with lower RFI values are considered to be more efficient because they consume less feed than expected for their level of production or growth. The inverse relationship between RFI or NFI or efficiency is potentially confusing but important to understand; animals with a lower RFI value are more efficient and animals with a higher RFI value are less efficient.

在个体动物水平上，饲料效率表示为剩余采食量（RFI）或净采食量（NFI）。它是通过测量动物的实际采食量并将其与基于其生理因素（大小、生长速度、繁殖等）的估计采食量进行比较来计算的。RFI 值较低的动物被认为效率更高，因为它们消耗的饲料少于其生产或生长水平的预期。RFI或NFI或效率之间的反比关系可能会令人困惑，但理解起来很重要；RFI值较低的动物效率较高，RFI值较高的动物效率较低。

Selecting for individual animal feed efficiency

根据个体动物饲料效率进行选择

Our analysis has found that around three-quarters of the differences in herd productivity (kilograms of beef per animal unit) between herds can be explained by the following three key productivity drivers:Weaning Rate,Mortality Rate,Sale Weight.

我们的分析发现，牛群之间牛群生产力（每头动物的牛肉公斤数）之间约四分之三的差异可以通过以下三个关键生产力驱动因素来解释：断奶率，死亡率，销售重量。

Of these three, weaning rate is the most important measure. Small differences in each of these measures have a big influence on the productivity of herds. More productive herds have greater overall feed efficiency; generating more beef, and income, for every kilogram of grass eaten. This is because a large proportion of the feed consumed by any herd is used for maintenance, improvements in productivity provide more production to spread the maintenance intake over.

在这三者中，断奶率是最重要的衡量标准。这些措施中的每一项的微小差异都会对牛群的生产力产生很大的影响。生产力更高的牛群具有更高的整体饲料效率；每吃一公斤草就能产生更多的牛肉和收入。这是因为任何牛群消耗的饲料的很大一部分用于维持，生产力的提高提供了更多的产量来分散维持摄入量。

What does this mean for commercial businesses?

这对商业企业意味着什么？

Our interpretation is that commercial breeding businesses will do more to improve the feed efficiency of their herd by selecting for traits that will improve overall herd productivity (fertility and growth) than by trying to select for animals that have better individual feed efficiency. Focusing on productivity (outputs) has a direct effect on producers bottom line and does not require complexity of adding new traits to breeding objectives.

我们的解释是，商业育种企业将通过选择能够提高整体牛群生产力（繁殖力和生长）的性状来提高牛群的饲料效率，而不是尝试选择具有更好个体饲料效率的动物。关注生产力（产出）对生产者的底线有直接影响，并且不需要在育种目标中添加新性状的复杂性。

In conclusion, we think it is best for commercial producers to select for efficient herds by focusing on overall herd productivity, rather than having too much emphasis on efficient animals; the difference is important to understand.

总之，我们认为商业生产者最好通过关注整体牛群生产力来选择高效牛群，而不是过分强调高效动物；理解这种差异很重要。

²                      The above information is for reference only.

²                      以上信息仅供参考