Corn Fed Cattle

[simtal]

I've noticed that there is a surprising number of people on this board that think feeding corn to cattle, during the era of low corn price, was shameful.  Some like to get on here and say, "the ruminant was designed to convert low quality forages, not corn, into.....etc."  And ,"shame on all you corn feeders for ruining our cattle industry."  The idea of labeling what cattle are and are not is ridiculous, IMO.  Look at pigs.  They can utilize pasture (while not very effectively). But today are fed grain, is that wrong? Cattle, like all food producing animals,  are designed to become whatever the consumer wants them to be. The number factor influencing beef demand is flavor.  Flavor is what sets beef apart from chicken or pork.  How do you get the flavor that people want? Feeding  high concentrate diets (corn). You can't do that with grass and still be profitable.

 

[garybob]

I've noticed that there is a surprising number of people on this board that think feeding corn to cattle, during the era of low corn price, was shameful.  Some like to get on here and say, "the ruminant was designed to convert low quality forages, not corn, into.....etc."  And ,"shame on all you corn feeders for ruining our cattle industry."  The idea of labeling what cattle are and are not is ridiculous, IMO.  Look at pigs.  They can utilize pasture (while not very effectively). But today are fed grain, is that wrong? Cattle, like all food producing animals,  are designed to become whatever the consumer wants them to be. The number factor influencing beef demand is flavor.  Flavor is what sets beef apart from chicken or pork.  How do you get the flavor that people want? Feeding  high concentrate diets (corn). You can't do that with grass and still be profitable.

I think the dramatically reduced availability of cheap grain has caused some in this industry to search for lower-input genetics. That's all. Nothing wrong with feeding grain when itis affordable. Right now? WE ( as an industry) need to examine things very carefully. I don't think Fescue can produce flavorful grass beef. Problems with the endophyte fungus affecting blood flow would alter the taste, in my opinion. I know this, because several of my relatives ( who have Black cattle) raise thier own freezer beef by feeding grain(at about thesame rate as feedlot cattle) to calves running in a Fescue paddock. The marbling is not as abundant as it should be for Angus-influenced calves.

JMHO.

GB

 

[knabe]

I've noticed that there is a surprising number of people on this board that think feeding corn to cattle, during the era of low corn price, was shameful.  Some like to get on here and say, "the ruminant was designed to convert low quality forages, not corn, into.....etc."  And ,"shame on all you corn feeders for ruining our cattle industry."  The idea of labeling what cattle are and are not is ridiculous, IMO.  Look at pigs.  They can utilize pasture (while not very effectively). But today are fed grain, is that wrong? Cattle, like all food producing animals,  are designed to become whatever the consumer wants them to be. The number factor influencing beef demand is flavor.  Flavor is what sets beef apart from chicken or pork.  How do you get the flavor that people want? Feeding  high concentrate diets (corn). You can't do that with grass and still be profitable.

i don't think there is any shame.

ruminants were designed to digest starch as well as cellulose and other storers of sunlight.  during different times of the year, there are different levels of starch in "natural" feedstuffs.  tenderness is probably an equal factor to taste.  i had a pretty lousy filet over the weekend for my birthday.  it's pretty easy to fatten any cattle on headed out grass in the fill stage.  amylase will start the conversion of starch into available sugars.  this notion that you can or can't do this with a variety of feedstuffs, timelines, resources and final product differences is sometimes a little tedious and reminds me of a backpressure streaming contest. 

 

[TJ]

I've noticed that there is a surprising number of people on this board that think feeding corn to cattle, during the era of low corn price, was shameful.  Some like to get on here and say, "the ruminant was designed to convert low quality forages, not corn, into.....etc."  And ,"shame on all you corn feeders for ruining our cattle industry."  The idea of labeling what cattle are and are not is ridiculous, IMO.  Look at pigs.  They can utilize pasture (while not very effectively). But today are fed grain, is that wrong? Cattle, like all food producing animals,  are designed to become whatever the consumer wants them to be. The number factor influencing beef demand is flavor.  Flavor is what sets beef apart from chicken or pork.  How do you get the flavor that people want? Feeding  high concentrate diets (corn). You can't do that with grass and still be profitable.

I disagree that you can't get flavor with grass finished cattle (you can) & I can tell you that it is very profitable to do it.  Now it possibly depends on the grass used & the genetics, but I've had some awful good grass fed beef.  And people are making money doing it all around you & not too far away from you.  I had an email from someone in Dupo, IL this morning & they are looking to raise Lowlines.     

With that said, I don't think there is anything wrong with feeding corn, as long as you can profitably do it.  Personally, I don't think you should have to feed a cow any corn/grain.  However, feeding a steer a limited amount of grain, for a 45-60 day period, to finish them, doesn't bother me. 

It all boils down to making money & I personally don't see how anyone can make money with 1,800 lb. cows & feeding a lot of corn, unless they are selling show cattle. 

 

[simtal]

I've noticed that there is a surprising number of people on this board that think feeding corn to cattle, during the era of low corn price, was shameful.  Some like to get on here and say, "the ruminant was designed to convert low quality forages, not corn, into.....etc."  And ,"shame on all you corn feeders for ruining our cattle industry."  The idea of labeling what cattle are and are not is ridiculous, IMO.  Look at pigs.  They can utilize pasture (while not very effectively). But today are fed grain, is that wrong? Cattle, like all food producing animals,  are designed to become whatever the consumer wants them to be. The number factor influencing beef demand is flavor.  Flavor is what sets beef apart from chicken or pork.  How do you get the flavor that people want? Feeding  high concentrate diets (corn). You can't do that with grass and still be profitable.

I disagree that you can't get flavor with grass finished cattle (you can) & I can tell you that it is very profitable to do it.  Now it possibly depends on the grass used & the genetics, but I've had some awful good grass fed beef.  And people are making money doing it all around you & not too far away from you.  I had an email from someone in Dupo, IL this morning & they are looking to raise Lowlines.     

With that said, I don't think there is anything wrong with feeding corn, as long as you can profitably do it.  Personally, I don't think you should have to feed a cow any corn/grain.  However, feeding a steer a limited amount of grain, for a 45-60 day period, to finish them, doesn't bother me. 

It all boils down to making money & I personally don't see how anyone can make money with 1,800 lb. cows & feeding a lot of corn, unless they are selling show cattle. 

Possibly depends on grass used and genetics?  I'd say it all depends on that. 

45-60 days? are you starting 1100 pounders on feed?

 

[C-CROSS]

Let me ask you this, can you afford to feed grass fed cattle, when farm ground is running 1200 and up per acre????  There are places where grass fed could lose money due to this>

 

[GLZ]

I had an email from someone in Dupo, IL this morning & they are looking to raise Lowlines

Dupo Seriously????????  I live about 25 miles from Dupo, and I know of nowhere in Dupo that you can raise cattle.  It is basically a suburb of St. Louis on the wrong side of the tracks.

 

[TJ]

I had an email from someone in Dupo, IL this morning & they are looking to raise Lowlines

Dupo Seriously????????  I live about 25 miles from Dupo, and I know of nowhere in Dupo that you can raise cattle.  It is basically a suburb of St. Louis on the wrong side of the tracks.

All I know is that they claim to own 90 acres somewhere near Dupo & currently have cattle.  They never said that they lived in Dupo or that they raised cattle in Dupo.  For all I know it could hoax, but I had a hit on my website from one of the St Louis suburbs on the IL side yesterday, which is the exact same day that the email was sent.  My guess that it is legit, they probably live 10-20 miles away, but have some cattle outside Dupo.  But, it could be some teenage kid doing a hoax just for kicks.  I did have a suspicious email from some spanish sounding name that raised a few red flags.  It happens.  Regardless, Illinois is my #1 state for website traffic.         

 

[TJ]

Let me ask you this, can you afford to feed grass fed cattle, when farm ground is running 1200 and up per acre????  There are places where grass fed could lose money due to this>

Can you afford to raise any cattle on $1,200+ an acre?  That is the real question.  I'm not saying you can't lose money with grassfed, but you can also lose money with grain fed too.  The truth is, most of the people that I know are running grass fed cattle on what is probably considered $3,000-$5,000 or more per acre ground around Springfield, IL, Peoria, IL, Rockford, IL, Lafayette, IN, etc, etc.  They also claim to be making money.

Almost all of them are selling finished steers for $3,000+ & none of them sell anything under $2,500.  Most of those steers only require an acre or 2 tops, year round.  They also have very little costs. Most own their own land already, but when you are making a couple thousand dollar per head profit, I think you can justify buying $1,200 per acre land pretty easily.           

 

[TJ]

I've noticed that there is a surprising number of people on this board that think feeding corn to cattle, during the era of low corn price, was shameful.  Some like to get on here and say, "the ruminant was designed to convert low quality forages, not corn, into.....etc."  And ,"shame on all you corn feeders for ruining our cattle industry."  The idea of labeling what cattle are and are not is ridiculous, IMO.  Look at pigs.  They can utilize pasture (while not very effectively). But today are fed grain, is that wrong? Cattle, like all food producing animals,  are designed to become whatever the consumer wants them to be. The number factor influencing beef demand is flavor.  Flavor is what sets beef apart from chicken or pork.  How do you get the flavor that people want? Feeding  high concentrate diets (corn). You can't do that with grass and still be profitable.

I disagree that you can't get flavor with grass finished cattle (you can) & I can tell you that it is very profitable to do it.  Now it possibly depends on the grass used & the genetics, but I've had some awful good grass fed beef.  And people are making money doing it all around you & not too far away from you.  I had an email from someone in Dupo, IL this morning & they are looking to raise Lowlines.      

With that said, I don't think there is anything wrong with feeding corn, as long as you can profitably do it.   Personally, I don't think you should have to feed a cow any corn/grain.  However, feeding a steer a limited amount of grain, for a 45-60 day period, to finish them, doesn't bother me. 

It all boils down to making money & I personally don't see how anyone can make money with 1,800 lb. cows & feeding a lot of corn, unless they are selling show cattle. 

Possibly depends on grass used and genetics?  I'd say it all depends on that. 

45-60 days? are you starting 1100 pounders on feed?

Yes, IMHO, it all does depend upon grass & genetics.  Which is why some grass fed beef isn't very good.  But, some grain fed beef isn't very good either.  I used the word "possibly", because I figured that someone else may disagree. 

It could be any weight, but yeah, probably 950 - 1,100 lb. steers is what I would be doing.  However, it all depends upon the cattle.  The only important thing when only feeding for 60 days is that they are within 60 days of finishing when they first go on feed.  The 1/2 blood Lowlines in the NDSU-Dickinson study all had a starting weight of 900+ going into the feedlot with a 3 year average finishing weight over 1,200+.  I'm sure that they were on feed longer than 60 days. 

 

[simtal]

Let me ask you this, can you afford to feed grass fed cattle, when farm ground is running 1200 and up per acre????  There are places where grass fed could lose money due to this>

where is this 1200/acre farm ground at?  Here in IL pasture goes from 3 times that.  Crop ground is double what pasture is (6-fold).

 

[knabe]

where there isn't lower cost and lower quality water to grow crops and the land seems good for safflower, sorghum and other salt tolerant crops.  some of this land, at least in OK went back into pasture, though that was probably a mistake given commodity prices.  it's so annoying to be caught up in a government program.  never again.