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.”
Rusche says beef-on-dairy cattle fit well into the industry’s push for heavier, high-quality carcasses when genetics and management line up correctly. He pointed to one beef-on-dairy carcass used during an Alta Genetics tour stop as an example of the type of product feeders and packers want.
“[The beef-on-dairy ribeye] is an easy ribeye to sell,” Rusche says. “It’s the right size. It’s the right shape. It’s got plenty of marbling.”
He says those cattle work especially well for higher-end foodservice markets looking for consistent steak quality.
“That’s going to find a home on a lot of white tablecloth kind of beef orders,” he says.
Bigger Cattle are Creating New Management Challenges
Although heavier cattle improve revenue potential, Rusche says they also create significant management challenges inside feedyards and packing plants. One concern is simply handling cattle of that size safely.
Transportation and bruising are becoming larger concerns as well. According to data from the National Beef Quality Audit, bruising has increased in recent years. Rusche says only about half of carcasses evaluated in 2022 were free of bruises, compared to roughly three-fourths in 2011.
Larger cattle also place more stress on feet and legs, especially in muddy lots or crowded facilities. Heat stress becomes another concern as cattle get bigger and fatter.
“I worry about some of these very large, heavy black-hided cattle and how well they deal with some of those first few heat events,” he says.
Late-term death loss is another growing challenge, particularly with the value of fed cattle today. Rusche says losing a finished steer late in the feeding period creates a major financial hit after months of feed and labor investment.
“When we lose a $4,300 steer at the very end, that is a painful cost on that closeout,” Rusche says.
Early Calf Care Could Affect Feedlot Performance Months Later
Rusche believes early-life calf management will play a major role in reducing health problems later in the feeding period. During the discussion, Rusche highlighted the importance of strong colostrum management, ventilation and protecting lung health early in life.
“Managing lung health early is critically important,” he says. “If they’re having some challenges at 1,250 or 1,300 lbs., it is not going to get better.”
Researchers are also exploring whether longer forage-based growing periods could help cattle stay sound longer and reduce digestive challenges later in the feeding phase. In one SDSU study involving beef-on-dairy cattle, calves were fed a higher-forage diet for either 28, 56 or 84 days before transitioning into finishing diets.
The cattle fed forage longer were leaner and less efficient, but Rusche says there may still be value in those systems if they reduce death loss.
“If I wanted to make up a $19-a-head deficit, I need to cut death loss at the end by half a percent,” he says. “We’re only talking in a 200-head pen, one animal dying or not dying.”
Rusche also believes the industry may revisit grazing systems or longer backgrounding periods to help cattle build frame before entering high-energy finishing programs.
Beef-on-Dairy Genetics are Becoming More Targeted
Rusche says beef-on-dairy breeding decisions have become far more intentional over the past few years.
“We’ve moved past the era of, ‘Tell me what you have in the tank that’s cheap and black,’” he says.
Instead, producers are focusing more heavily on carcass quality, growth, muscling and market fit when selecting beef sires for dairy cows. Rusche expects Angus genetics will likely remain dominant because of availability and market acceptance, though other breeds and composite systems continue gaining interest.
Despite the challenges tied to larger cattle, Rusche does not expect carcass weights to shrink anytime soon. Tight beef cow numbers and strong beef demand continue pushing the industry toward more production per animal.
“There’s going to be a need to increase carcass weight because we still have really strong beef demand but less numbers of cattle that we have to meet that,” he says.
Still, he emphasized the industry cannot sacrifice eating quality in the pursuit of pounds.
“We cannot go backwards on product quality,” Rusche says. “What’s been helping lift all these boats has been consumer demand.”
As beef-on-dairy cattle continue making up a larger share of the fed cattle supply, decisions around genetics, growth and carcass size will remain under the spotlight. Producers may continue pushing for more pounds and more value per animal, but Rusche believes long-term success still comes back to balancing efficiency with consumer expectations. In a market driven by strong beef demand, producing heavier cattle only works if the eating experience keeps consumers coming back to the meat case.
