Abstract: [Objective] To accurately grasp the research directions of beef cattle industry in China, and to promote the systematization, specialization and precision of beef cattle industry researches. [Method] The original data of 2 389 published scientific articles on beef cattle industry in CNKI Journal Database from the year of 2000 to 2020 were taken as the analysis objects. CiteSpace software was used to summarize and analyze the publication time, authors, institutions, journals, highly cited references and co-occurrence, clustering, time zone and emergence of the keywords of the articles. [Result] The number of published articles on beef cattle industry in scientific journals had dramatically increased since the year of 2009. CAO Bing-hai, ZHANG Yue-jie and ZAN Lin-sen and other scholars made a lot of researches on beef cattle industry, while the cooperation among the scholars was scattered. Jilin Agricultural University, Northwest Agricultural and Forestry University, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and China Agricultural University were the dominant contributive institutes; there were limited collaborations and connections among different institutes, and cross-regional and cross-sectoral cooperation was expected to be enhanced. Journal of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine published the most articles on beef cattle industry; Chinese Rural Economy had the highest impact factor among the journals which had published articles on beef cattle industry; Beef Cattle Breeders: Factors Affecting Their Choice for Ways of Vertical Cooperation was the most frequently cited article. [Conclusion] The comprehensiveness of the researches on beef cattle industry in China has continuously escalated, the academic recognition and value have steadily improved, and the research hotspots mainly focus in beef cattle industry, beef cattle feeding, beef cattle breeds, etc.

Key words: beef cattle industry, CiteSpace software, hotspots and frontiers, bibliometrics