What a Feedlot or Fattening Unit is?

A fattening unit (feeding lot) is an enclosure (confinement, pen or kraal) in which underweighted animals are kept and provided with adequate amounts of feed and water until they reach the market-ready weight for slaughtering.

The main purpose of a fattening unit is to achieve maximum growth (average daily gain) with minimum costs. This is achieved by getting the feed intake as high as possible through the constant provision of good quality feed.

Beef Lifecycle

1. On cow-calf farms and ranches, cows are bred and give birth to a calf each year.
2. For the first few months of life, calves drink their mother’s milk and spend time grazing on grass pastures.
3. Calves are weaned from their mother’s milk when they are about 8 months old and weigh approximately 227 kg. Calves then move onto pastures where they eat grass and forages that are indigestible to people.
4. Many calves are purchased at livestock auction markets by farmers and ranchers. Some of the calves, including about one-in-three female calves, are kept on the cow-calf farm as breeding animals.
5. Farmers and ranchers and backgrounders graze cattle on many different kinds of pastures. These cattle gain weight and in effect, convert forage and grass into protein.
6. The cattle are then sold or moved to feedlots where they receive a carefully balanced, grain-based diet.
7. Beef cattle are harvested in modern processing facilities or packing plants where skilled workers break down beef carcasses into popular beef cuts.
8. Beef from the packing plant is sent to supermarkets and restaurants worldwide. South Africa’s current annual average beef consumption of about 700000 tons, second after chicken consumption of about 1,7 million tons, is likely to increase by about 25% by 2020.
9. Beef provides high-quality protein and 10 essential nutrients to diets in South Africa and around the globe.

Click here to view an explanation about the feedlots or fattening units.