Corn Industry - the next tobacco??

[Brandonm22]

Grass finishing takes more TIME but shouldn't it take less inputs and therefore be similar in cost? At least, it wouldn't be the same as finishing a steer on grain for longer.

Keeping the calves around longer means all manners of cost increases. Six months more life means another dewormer shot, more vaccines, more potential for illness, more days of maintenance energy, more water consumed, more labor, etc but the biggest cost to doubling or tripling the finishing time is interest. You buy 100 feed calves weighing 600 lbs at $1 a lb and you spend $60,000. 6 months finishing time versus 12 months finishing time means DOUBLE the interest expense if you pay the same rate.

 

[wstevenl]

Okay sounds like some of you should keep feeding grain.

 

[Arkieman]

After reading the article, assuming the nutritional info is correct and grass finished beef tasted same or better (never tried it), I'd prefer grass-finished to grain-finished. Now whether I'd pay more for it and/or how much more, I'm not sure....