Quantitative Methods to Determine Factors Affecting Productivity and Profitability of Beef Fattening Enterprises in Egypt

This study was carried out during the period extended from 2011 to 2013 on standardized records of fattening beef enterprises to demonstrate the use of productive and profit regression models as a possible method to determine factors affecting productivity and profitability of beef fattening enterprises. The production function revealed that about 95% from the changes in beef meat production were attributed to the changes in fattening period, initial weight and daily weight gain. The beef meat production was positively affected by initial weight and daily growth of animal, where increasing initial weight and daily growth of animal by 1% resulted in increase of beef meat production by 0.475% and 0.455%, respectively. The results of profit function indicated that the most important factor affecting beef enterprises profitability is selling price of animal, while the factors having the second and third highest effect were purchasing price of animal and feed cost; respectively. The live animal selling price was positively related to beef profitability, where increasing selling price by 1% would increase profit by 7.52%. The influence of feed cost and live animal purchasing price on beef profitability was significantly negative, where increasing purchasing price and feed cost by 1% would decrease beef profitability by 3.71% and 2.91%, respectively. Also, the logistic regression function revealed a significant association between beef breed and some predictors such as Initial weight and weight gain.