More than gain, look to beef production efficiency
By Dr. Jim White
Today’s Farmer
Beef feed efficiency is important; feed cost is usually reported to be 65 to 70 percent of the total cost of beef gain. Given that the principal cost of producing beef is feed, there is tremendous interest in having the most profitable feeding strategies. In the past, we would feed animals, weigh the feed and the animals, then determine how many pounds of feed were offered per pound of gain. This gave us feed-to-gain ratio, and it is a pretty good number when looked at from the perspective of Jim hauling out buckets of feed to the calves.
