The Balancing Act Behind Beef-on-Dairy Carcass Size

The beef industry continues pushing cattle to heavier weights, and according to Warren Rusche, extension beef feedlot specialist at South Dakota State University, the reason comes down to economics.

During a Beef-on-Dairy Dialogue webinar presented by I-29 Moo University, Rusche explained that feedyards are adding more pounds because it is one of the few ways to stay profitable with today’s historically high feeder cattle prices. Using USDA data dating back to the 1960s, he pointed out that average carcass weights have increased by roughly 4.5 lbs. per year.

“This is maybe as consistent of a trend in the beef business as any,” he says. “We have continuously increased the size of the carcasses that we’re selling.”

Rusche says the economic incentive behind heavier cattle is straightforward. Feedyards are paying more for calves, and adding extra weight helps spread those costs over additional pounds of beef.

“As we added cattle, as we put cattle on feed and made them heavier and fatter, we made more money. Period,” Rusche says. “That to me in a nutshell is what is driving this.”

Feedyards are Feeding Cattle Longer than Ever

Rusche shared results from a long-term feeding study evaluating Angus, Limousin and Lim-Flex influenced cattle. Steers fed for 270 days reached roughly 1,750 lbs. live weight, with carcasses exceeding 1,000 lbs. While those weights may sound extreme, he says they are becoming increasingly common in commercial feeding systems, especially across the Upper Midwest.

“I talked to a friend of mine when we were going to take these steers out to around 1,700 lbs., and he said, ‘Well, that’s not so terribly big,’” Rusche says. “In today’s feeding world, especially here in the Midwest, it’s really not.”

He says many feedyards have reached the conclusion that heavier cattle simply pencil better financially.

“When I start looking at what feeder cattle are worth today, the only way they make sense is I need to be farther to the right of this chart than to the left,” Rusche says. “If we’re going to be profitable feeding these very valuable cattle coming into the yard, we have to add more weight to them.”