MANAGEMENT AND ANIMAL WELFARE IN BEEF CATTLE FARMING IN BRAZIL: A LITERATURE REVIEW

Abstract

Beef cattle farming is a fundamental sector of the Brazilian economy, standing out as one of the world's largest producers and exporters of beef. This literature review aims to analyze management practices and the importance of animal welfare in beef cattle production in Brazil, addressing their impacts on productivity and meat quality. The study highlights that animal welfare is directly related to zootechnical performance, with animals kept under appropriate conditions exhibiting better growth, lower incidence of diseases, and higher-quality meat. The main factors influencing welfare include nutritional, health, and reproductive management, as well as infrastructure conditions and thermal comfort. The review emphasizes the predominant production systems in Brazil: extensive, semi-intensive, and intensive, each with specific advantages and challenges. The extensive system, based on pastures, has lower costs but also lower productivity. In contrast, the intensive system, such as feedlot operations, requires greater investment but provides accelerated weight gain and carcass standardization. Nutritional management is one of the pillars of production, accounting for up to 90% of operational costs, with an emphasis on strategic supplementation and the use of rotational grazing to optimize nutrition. Additionally, the study addresses the importance of health and reproductive management, highlighting the need for disease prevention and the adoption of techniques such as fixed-time artificial insemination (FTAI) to improve reproductive efficiency. It concludes that integrating good management practices with investments in technology and technical training is essential to ensuring the sustainability and competitiveness of Brazilian cattle farming. The review reinforces the need for policies that encourage the adoption of animal welfare protocols and the dissemination of knowledge among producers.