Socioeconomic determinants and production factors influencing beef fattening success in Bangladesh: A cross-sectional study using a multivariate approach

Beef fattening is an important livelihood strategy in Bangladesh, yet limited empirical evidence exists on how farmer’s  socioeconomic factors and management practices influence health outcomes and market value. This study applied multilevel statistical analyses to evaluate determinants of management procedures and high selling price of beef production. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 60 farmers and 100 fattening cattle of North-East region of Bangladesh by a pre-structured questionnaire through face-to-face interview. Descriptive statistics with 95% confidence intervals (CI), Chi-square and Fisher’s exact tests were used to assess associations between categorical variables. Logistic regression was used to identify predictors of high selling price. The maximum number of farmers involved in beef fattening is male (55%). About 50.82% farmers had taken training on beef fattening and rest of the portion did not have any training. All animals in the study were uncastrated males. Most of the farmers offered their beef cattle 1-5 kg green roughage (44%). Nobody used steroid drugs, but most of them used feed supplements such as multivitamins. Most of the fattened cattle (52%) sold between 100000 to 200000 takas. Training exhibited perfect association with vaccination (Fisher’s exact p = 0.00059), with all trained farmers vaccinating their animals. Crossbred cattle were significantly more likely to be sold at ≥100,000 BDT than local breeds (p = <0.05). Feed additive use was inversely associated with high selling price, whereas final weight category strongly predicted high market value (p<0.05). Therefore, the beef fattening programme can be a profitable business in Bangladesh by adopting training and better management procedures.