What Do You Feed a Growing Steer
Nutrition and Feeding
Among the most essential components of beef production are proper nutrition and feed management. Feeding your cattle a healthy, balanced diet and providing abundant supplies of clean water is crucial for herd health and productivity.
On this page, Penn State Extension offers a comprehensive list of resources to help you with beef cattle nutrition and feeding, high-grain vs grass-fed beef production, feed analysis, water needs, mineral supplementation, and more.
Beef Cattle Feed Management
A large part of beef cattle production costs is dedicated to the purchase of (supplementary) feeds. Due to the high expenses, it's important that producers utilize cattle feed in an optimal way.
When creating a feed management plan, the focus should be on increasing cattle feeding efficiency, reducing the quantity and nutrient content of manure, and achieving nutrient balance.
To learn more about beef cattle feed management, have a look at Penn State Extension's Feed Efficiency workshop. The workshop covers a variety of topics, such as identifying animals that can efficiently convert feed into marketable products.
Beef Cattle Nutrient Requirements
Matching forage quality and quantity to the cattle nutritional needs is a key factor for optimal herd performance. Underfeeding nutrients can lower production and overfeeding can increase feed expenses and losses over net return.
Typically, the amount of nutrients needed is influenced by climate conditions, as well as the animal's age, weight, and production stage (e.g. calves, young cattle, or lactating cows). A cow's basic nutritional needs include protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, minerals, and water.
Grass-fed Beef Cattle
Grass-fed beef is a term used to describe meat from animals that ate a pasture-based diet. Cows raised on pastures spend a bigger part of their time eating native forages and upcycling nutrients.
It is worth knowing that beef produced for the grass-fed market, may also come from animals raised in a pasture setting but 'finished' on a grain-based diet.
Grain-Fed Beef Herds
Grain-fed beef is meat from cows that have been fed (mostly) corn and other grains. Beef producers may choose to feed their livestock grains for a number of reasons such as on-farm resources and environmental factors, as well as wanting to maintain a consistent meat supply quality.
A grain-based diet can be a cheaper alternative to hay that supplies the herd with sufficient nutrition. In general, good cattle diets are developed by nutritionists and contain protein, fiber, vitamins, and cereal grains.
Overall, whether producers raise beef as grass-fed or grain-fed, the animals still spend the majority of their life grazing on pastures and their meat is an excellent nutritional source.
Calving and Cattle Nutrition
Beef cattle can meet the majority of their nutritional needs through hay, grass, or stored forages. Certain adjustments are required in the period right before and immediately after calving.
Proper beef cattle nutrition prior to and after calving can be challenging to maintain. During this period, nutritional needs are dependent on factors such as lactation, reproductive state, and colostrum production.
Colostrum – the initial milk produced by the cow – plays a significant role in the diet of a newborn calf. Restricted pre-calving nutrition can directly impact colostrum production. In turn, calves with restricted colostrum intake tend to be more prone to diseases, have higher mortality rates, and have lower feedlot growth rates.
Learn more about cattle nutrition, as well as how to manage beef cattle feeds with Penn State Extension's articles, workshops, conferences, and online courses.
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Sampling Bales for Forage Quality Analysis
Testing stored forages for nutritional quality is an important management consideration in livestock nutrition. Sampling bales involves a few simple steps to get a representative sample.
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Water System Planning: Estimating Water Needs
Find out how to estimate homeowner or farmer water needs and calculate how much water must be delivered from a private water supply to meet these needs.
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Ration Formulation for Growing Cattle
Fact sheet providing guidelines as hypothetical scenarios that illustrate dietary comparisons across a singular system for growing beef cattle.
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Integrating Grazing into Cropping Systems
Benefits of integrating livestock grazing into cropping systems are becoming clearer. There are many challenges that need to be addressed to increase the chance of success with both enterprises.
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Preparing for Calving Season
Spring calving season is here for some and around the corner for others. As a beef producer, what do you need to know to be prepared for calving season?
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Cattle Feeders Day
When Watch Now
Recorded Jan 26, 2021
Learn up to date information on the cattle feeding industry and production with this informative webinar!
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Transitioning Calves: From Pasture to Feedlot
Transitioning newly weaned calves to the feedlot can be highly successful, or it can be a disaster. In order to avoid the disaster, follow these tips for success.
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Gut Health in Cattle
Poor gut health can negatively affect overall cattle health status and performance. By maintaining ideal gut health, animal health and performance will be bettered.
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Beef Cattle Spacing Requirements
Overcrowding can have negative effects on animal performance and efficiency. To maximize growth performance, producers should ensure the pen and bunk space are adequate.
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Heavy Use Area Pads for Cattle
A challenge that beef and dairy producers manage through is mud, which deteriorates soil health in areas of heavy use. A heavy use area pad prevents soil erosion, creating more sustainability.
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Care and Condition of Sacrifice Areas
Sacrifice areas are areas where livestock are kept during inclement weather, or to protect pastures from damage.
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What To Ask the Nutritionist
There are many benefits to hiring a good nutritionist for your beef cattle operation. However, sometimes it can be difficult to know what questions to ask when you are getting started.
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Nutrition Through the Weaning Period
Preweaned calf nutrition depends heavily on the dam and the pastures. While there are scenarios when supplementing calves prior to weaning will pay cattlemen, a careful calculation of the economics is recommended.
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Ruminant Nutrition
These videos will discuss the basics of ruminant nutrition relative to how forage quality affects ruminal function and animal performance.
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Integrating Grazing in No-Till Systems on a Grain Farm
The adoption of no-tillage systems in Pennsylvania creates opportunities to graze after harvest. This case study examines the integration of grazing and no-tillage on a grain farm.
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Plant Diversity to Extend the Grazing Season
This case study shows how a farmer in northwestern Pennsylvania is using annuals and perennials to expand his grazing season while managing for reduced inputs and improved soil health through integration of grazing and no-tillage.
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Grazing Corn Stalks with Beef Cattle
Feeding stored feeds in winter months is a major cost of beef cow-calf and backgrounding operations. Extending the grazing season by grazing corn crop residue may be an economically viable option for beef producers in Pennsylvania.
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Grazing Residue Height Matters
It is important to remember to keep an eye on residue heights to eliminate over-grazing and the problems that occur as a result.
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Source: https://extension.psu.edu/animals-and-livestock/beef-cattle/nutrition-and-feeding
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