Central North Carolina | puff33m - 7/28/2015 20:48 Some heavy technical reading there. Interesting idea, I didn't get why they would be short fed and harvested at lighter weights. Certainly that is a big factor when the calf price is 2/3 of the budget. Isn't there anyone that targets select beef while intentionally feeding a lower cost ration? Or perhaps grass cattle supplemented corn and sold as fats? I see select steers in the Tama sale, are those not 0.20 cents less and destined for hamburger? I assumed those feeders know how to grow choice beef but managed in a way to make the most money from their available feed. Are they just not good at depositing fat on their calves?
What they were trying to determine is if there could be a short fed steer directly grown and targeted just for hamburger. The idea was that a lower cost, lower energy ration/forage could be substituted for the normal finishing feed and fed a shorter period of time. They knew the market value of the steer would be less when used as a leaner carcass and used entirely for hamburger, but want to see if that could be offset by lower cost. They found out it couldn't. The conclusion was it would only work if the cost of calves were lower.
I have often thought that in the south with our ability to utilize winter annuals on crop land might be a way to make something like that work. We benefit from the longer growing season, but have higher corn costs and very little if any feedlot/packing industry. The cost to transport cattle to areas with that finishing infrastructure reduces farmers income here, much like the authors suggest needs to happen for the short feeding idea to work.
Edited by Douglas 7/29/2015 09:57
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An interesting report on ground beef (link)
