Twenty-four Holstein crossbred young bulls, with 75 kg initial average weight and 215 kg final average weight, were confined in a feedlot. The objective of this experiment was to evaluate the production cost. The animals were fed elephant grass with 30 to 45 days of age, soybean meal, corn meal, meat meal and mineral mix basal concentrate, and broiler litter, which constituted the treatments: 1 = 50% forage and 50% concentrate, 2 = 50% forage, 35% concentrate and 15% broiler litter, 3 = 25% forage and 75% concentrate and 4 = 25% forage, 52.5% concentrate and 22.5% broiler litter, as dry matter basis. It was used the completely randomized blocks experimental design, with six blocks and four treatments. The gross income, costs and profit analysis indicated that the profit was negative in all treatments when the produced meat sale price was the same as the fat ox price. However, when the same costs were maintained (effective operational cost and total operational cost) and the kilo of produced meat sale price rose 10%, relative to the fat ox kilo of meat price, all the treatments presented profit, distinguishing the treatments 2 and 3, with R$ 0.042 and R$ 0.03 per kilo of produced meat and return on the invested capital of 14.20 and 14.64%/year, respectively. The concentrate price variation, from 0.26 to 0.20 R$/kg, caused larger impact in the effective operational cost of treatment 3 and smaller in treatment 2, providing profit and return on the invested capital for all treatments, based on the 7.62:1 relationship between concentrate price x meat price. The simulations showed that treatment 2 was economically more advantageous because it produced a better cost/benefit relationship in the conditions of the present work.
cost/benefit; crossbred; price; profit; return on the invested capital
