An investigation on structural properties of beef cattle farms in antalya province

This study was carried out to present the current situation and produce some solutions regarding the cattle fattening activities in Antalya province. For this purpose, farms that are members of the Red Meat Producers' Association of Antalya in various districts and the animals reared in these farms were used as material. Moreover, with the help of the prepared questionnaire, descriptive information about the tendency of the breeders and motivation sources, barn characteristics, feed sources, feeding, product-input prices were obtained. The results indicate that, visited farmers have been practicing the cattle fattening process for long time, but they didn't attend enough educational courses related to it. The level of organization among the breeders was also very low. The feeds used are usually supplied by purchase, and there may be great differences between the prices. There is no farm grazing animals in the pasture. It was also noticed that in some farms, animals from various ages and races were kept together. During the visits, it was observed that the floors were very dirty in the farms despite the declaration that the floor was cleaned by automatic scrapers in very short intervals. Finally it was reported that the most common health problems were respiratory problems such as pneumonia and pastorella, followed by foot-nail problems.