Animal Science, Department of
Date of this Version
January 2001
Abstract
A two-year summary of growing/ finishing systems indicates that steer calves wintered at 1.5 lb/day had lower slaughter breakeven (P < .05) costs compared to animals wintered at 0.5 lb/day. Additionally, feeding wet corn gluten feed as an energy source to increase winter gains tended (P < .15) to produce slaughter breakevens which were lower than the same winter gains produced by feeding corn. Restricting animal gain over the winter (0.5-1.0 lb/day) resulted in 25-32% compensation on grass compared to controls (1.5 lb/day). Comparison of calf finishing vs. yearling growing/finishing systems showed that steers wintered with a “fast” rate of gain (1.5 lb/day) profited $28.85/head compared to losses by steers wintered with a “slow” rate of gain (0.5 lb/day; $-30.24/head) or calf finishing ($-20.87/head).
Comments
Published in Nebraska Beef Cattle Report 2001, published by Agricultural Research Division, University of Nebraska Cooperative Extension, and Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Nebraska–Lincoln.