LACOMBE, Alta. – Finishing cattle on grass is an inexpensive alternative to feedlot finishing, a provincial beef nutritionist told members of one of the oldest livestock organizations on the Prairies.
“Pasture as an alternative or complement to grain finishing is very real,” Erasmus Okine told the Western Canadian Stock Growers’ Association convention.
“Under the right conditions you can finish cattle on pasture with just a little bit of grain.”
The researcher said that when feed costs are about 70 percent of the cost of gain in cattle, extending time on pasture has money-saving possibilities.
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A study at the Lacombe Research Centre showed feed costs at $351 per day in a feedlot, compared to $245 per day on feed for pasture.
“Gains on pasture are achieved at a much lower cost.”
But Okine warned producers to be wary of producing cattle that grade B1, which is less profitable than A, AA, or AAA grade.
In one study, 67 percent of the cattle graded B1. With the addition of some concentrate to the feed mix, 89 percent graded A or AA, 11 percent graded AAA and none graded B1.
“You may need a little grain to help get over the B1 grade,” he said of pasture feed programs.
As a bonus, older, grass-finished cattle tend to add the fat in muscles, where it is wanted, and not on the outside where it becomes waste and trim.
