Beef cattle are cattle raised for meat production (as distinguished from dairy cattle for milk production). The meat from adult or near-adult cattle is known primarily as beef. There are three main stages of beef cattle production: calf rearing, background rearing, and feed lot rearing. The cattle production cycle begins with calf rearing. The purpose of this rearing is to breed cattle and their offspring.
Calves born here are back grounded for the feed lot. Cattle raised exclusively for feed lots are called feeder cattle and are intended for fattening. Cattle not intended for the feed lot are generally female and are commonly known as heifers. The primary use of beef cattle is meat production, but other uses include beef by-products used for leather, candy, shampoo, cosmetics, and insulin.
In addition to breeding to meet beefcattle production demands, owners also selectively breed for specific traits in beefcattle. Examples of desired traits include lean meat and resistance to disease. Abreed called dual-purpose is also used in beef cattle production.
About the Book
This beef cattle nutrition workbook is designed as an interactive tool to help beef cattle producers manage their herds. It includes information on beef cattle nutritional requirements, the nutritional value of forages, the importance of minerals and vitamins to cattle health and performance, balanced diets, economical supplementation strategies, heifer development, and the use of cattle body condition scores as a nutrition and reproductive management tool.
Each chapter includes worksheets to help you develop a farm-specific plan for nutritional management of your beef herd. We hope this workbook will help you plan and implement your nutrition program.