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Frequently Asked Questions
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Q: I feed out a portion of my 100% Angus calves to sell as quarters/halves directly to the consumer (No Implants or hormones). Calves are fed separate from cows and are started early on free choice grass. At 2/3 months we start feeding a creep ration=70% cracked/ground corn and 30% DDGs-mixed in mixer. Salt/mineral always free choice. We work this mix up to 4.5 lbs/head/day by weaning time–approx. 180 days. The mix is continued until cattle are about 9 months of age with grass continually fed free choice. At 9 months the mix is slowly upped to 25 lbs/head/day while grass decreased to 7 lbs/head/day. Cattle are harvested at about 13 months weighing 1250 to 1300 lbs. Butcher says meat and conditioning are perfect but a few customers complain meat is fatty/greasy – burger will flame up on grill. Would the addition of oats to the mix help to add fiber/roughage and lower energy enough to help with the “greasy” problems?
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A: You could change the energy level of the ration to reduce the fatness of your beef carcasses (and the cattle will grow more slowly) or you could slaughter earlier the cattle with less days on feed. Both approaches should reduce the fat in the carcass. However, if the complaint is that only the ground beef contains too much fat, then the easy solution is to have the processors trim more fat from the lean trimmings before producing the ground beef.
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Dr. Dennis Burson, Professor of Animal Science
Animal Science, University of Nebraska - Lincoln, Lincoln, NE
February 29th, 2008
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