Jim, my experience is all with dairy cows. I have been told repeatedly that beef cows might as well be a completely different species. My observations re:manure and feeding may not apply to beefers.

I have contemplated getting some beef animals and running them in some otherwise-wasted land. I would be as green as can be when it came to managing them. May do it anyway, as sort of a moving toward retirement project.

I agree, try as we may to reduce animals to science, there is still more than a little art to it.