The most economical choice for Arkansas beef producers who want to bring their weaned cattle up to market weight is a high-energy diet that includes higher amounts of dry soybean hulls
A high-energy diet that includes higher amounts of dry soybean hulls was the most economical choice for Arkansas beef producers who want to “finish,” or bring their weaned cattle up to market weight, on the farm
An Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station study conducted at the Southwest Research and Extension Center in Hope showed that a high-byproducts diet, which uses a material that may otherwise be wasted, also provided the best meat quality among three diets tested
“Cattle producers are looking for alternative methods to finish their cattle and successfully diversify their operations through direct marketing of their products to consumers,” said Daniel Rivera, associate professor of animal science and director of the Southwest Research and Extension Center for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. The experiment station is the research arm of the Division of Agriculture.
Rivera said the research team wanted to know the feasibility of keeping “feeder” cattle on the pasture with a high-energy supplement to achieve results comparable to those at feedlots. In the process, they would calculate the cost and measure the impact of different diets. Feeder cattle are weaned calves that have reached a weight between 600 to 800 pounds
The study stems from supply chain setbacks for meat supply during the COVID-19 pandemic and passage of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security or CARES Act, which opened alternative markets for cattle producers. The research was funded in part by a grant from the Arkansas Beef Council
“Arkansas is not typically a cattle finishing state, Rivera said: We don’t have that infrastructure here like they do out West and in the Midwest. A lot of local producers had an interest in finishing cattle, but they didn’t have the background or the knowledge base to do it correctly
Rivera said the study showed that cattle can be fed on pasture and finished in a similar amount of time as cattle fed at a feedlot, with no negative effect on quality
The study took place in 2023 and evaluated the effects of three diets on weight-gain performance, carcass quality and meat characteristics of 63 locally sourced crossbred feeder steers, which are young males that have been castrated
The feeder steers weighed on average 796 pounds at the start of the study. They were divided by body weight, fed assigned diets for 161 days and weighed every 28 days before being shipped to a commercial slaughter facility in Arkansas City, Kansas. Rivera said the facility was used to accommodate the higher number of cows than could be processed at a local facility in a timely manner. The cost of transportation to the facility in Kansas was not accounted for in the study because it was irrelevant to the scenario
Source: https://www.beefmagazine.com/farm-business-management/best-meat-quality-most-economical-cattle-finishing-diet-has-more-byproduct
