What's the Beef on Beef?

Reader Contribution by Troy Griepentrog

In a recent discussion with other Mother Earth News editors, someone asked, ‘Don’t cattle that go into feedlots spend at least part, probably more than half, their lives on pasture first?’ Good question. Since I grew up on a beef farm, I felt qualified to address the question. Our system (more than 20 years ago in North Dakota, though things haven’t changed much in those 20 years in many respects) was to raise calves with their mothers on pasture. Here’s a general timeline:

  • Calves were born in March and April (most of them).
  • Cows and calves went to pasture in June (some farmers in the area turned cattle onto pasture earlier, but we felt waiting a bit was better for the cattle and the pasture).
  • The pasture stopped growing and the snow started flying in October, so cows and calves came back to the farmstead.
  • Published on Aug 31, 2007
Tagged with: Reader Contributions
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