A PASTURE HANDBOOK 



69 



FATTENING CATTLE ON GRAIN AND GRASS 



In general, the feeding of grain to steers on pasture in the summer 

 has several advantages over winter feeding in dry lot. These advan- 

 tages include smaller grain requirements per pound of gain, less need 

 for protein concentrates, less labor, no need of shelter, and the spread- 

 ing of manure at no cost (fig. 18). Self-feeders for grain are satis- 

 factory for fattening cattle on pasture. On the other hand, summer 

 feeding of cattle on grass has the following disadvantages, especially 

 on small farms: A greater yield of feed usually can be obtained 



Figure 17.— Steers fattened on good pasture in southwestern Virginia. 



from crop land ; drought may reduce greatly the supply of feed for the 

 cattle ; and the price of feeder cattle is commonly higher in the spring 

 than in the fall. Other drawbacks are periods of extreme heat, flies, 

 and the need for having the cattle well finished in order to avoid 

 competition with strictly grass-fed cattle. 



Cattle fattened on grain and grass must grade high as slaughter 

 animals in order to bring the premium which is usually paid for grain- 

 fed cattle in the fall when there is a heavy run of "grass beef." Con- 

 sequently, much care must be taken in selecting and feeding cattle 

 which are to be fattened on grass and grain. If they are purcluised 

 the previous fall they should be wintered well. This applies particu- 

 larly to calves since they tend to grow rather than fatten on grass. 

 Therefore, if they are not in good condition in the spring, they will 

 not get fat enough during the summer to avoid being placed at a 

 disadvantage in competition with western range steers. Although 

 it is necessary to feed calves a small quantity of grain during the winter 

 in order to have them fat enough when they go on grass in the spring, 



