Is grass finishing beef cattle difficult?
A grass finish is a combination of the age of the beef animal and its rate of growth. An animal must gain over 1.7 pounds per day to create inter-muscular fat. Achieving this is typically very easy in the spring and early summer. However, summer and fall normally require specialist annual forages. Heifers can finish as early as 14 to 15 months of age but most steers will not marble on grass before 18 months of age and two years of age is more common. Medium sized English breeds such as Shorthorn, Murray Grey, White Park, Red Devon, Angus and Hereford are typically used for grass finished beef. Can you finish beef cattle on high quality alfalfa hay? There have been some reports of miniature cattle finishing on hay but for medium-sized cattle, the answer is generally no. So, how do you finish cattle in the winter? Through the use of early fall planted winter annuals like cereal rye, wheat, oats and annual ryegrass. Actually, in most of the United States finishing cattle on these grasses
