Beef
Backgrounding Production
The term “backgrounding” may be relatively new
to some.
However, this management system is well known to both
cow-calf producers and cattle feeders. Backgrounding is a
beef production system that uses pasture and other forages
from the time calves are weaned until they are placed in a
feedlot. Calves generally gain from 100 to 400 pounds,
depending on the available forages, ration fed, and length of
time involved.
The weight gain comes
primarily from muscle and frame development, with
little from fattening.
These gains are accomplished as economically as possible
by making maximum use of forages such as pasture, hay,
and silage. Little, if any, grain is used in most
backgrounding programs.
Marketing
Before selecting a backgrounding program, be sure you have a good marketing plan. A marketing plan might include putting cattle in your own feedlot for finishing or selling them as feeders.
Purchases of calves should be grouped according to
quality, weight, and sex to increase their value at market
time. All animals should be preconditioned.
Preconditioning includes purchasing calves weaned about
six weeks before normal sale time, started on feed, dehorning,
vaccinating, deworming, castrating males, and perhaps
implanting them with a growth promotant. These practices
help ensure that the calves will stay healthy and have a good
start in a backgrounding program.
Not every calf is suited for a backgrounding program.
Generally, calves less than eight months of age in aboveaverage
body condition are not suitable because they lose
weight and condition rapidly when fed high roughage
rations. Heifer calves also do not fit well into a lengthy
backgrounding program. The exception would be for a cowcalf
operation where backgrounding heifer calves would
allow for a better selection of replacement heifers.
Steer calves weighing 400 to 600 pounds in thin to
moderate condition are best suited for most backgrounding
programs. These calves are ready for finishing when they
reach 850 to 1,000 pounds and usually are in high demand
by cattle feeders.
This publication was developed by the Small and Part-time
Farming Project at Penn State with support from the U.S.
Department of Agriculture-Extension Service.
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Feeding Beef Cattle |
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Dairy-beef Production |
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Managing the upbringing of calves after the weaning |
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Technical-economical model for the prevention of "babesiosis" and "anaplasmosis" in bovines |
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Production in vitro of bovine embryos |
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