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Fattening steers on pasture

Idaho Agricultural Experiment Station

Abstract

The pasturing of beef cattle in fenced fields is not extensively practiced in the West. Idaho has only 15 per cent of the state area in fenced farm and ranch land, of which less than 9 per cent is in improved farms. With 45,000,000 acres of unfenced land, the general practice is to run cattle on the range throughout the pasturing season. Ranch pastures are generally saved for use by the cattle following the fall roundup, when they are returned to the home ranch and grazed until the first heavy snow-fall.

In a normal year on a good range, a steer will gain from 200 to 340 pounds during the grazing season, gaining approximately pounds per day.

Throughout the irrigated farming sections much use is made of irrigated pasture for dairy cattle, purebred beef cattle and farm flocks of sheep. To determine the carrying capacity of irrigated pastures and the feasibility of fattening steers on grass, the Idaho Experiment Station has conducted experiments with both two-year-old and yearling steers.