the first steer I bought was a 4H project, from a customer's son at the county fair (he took two, the other won grand champion that year). VERY specific rules regarding hormones, what they're fed and how fast they can gain weight.
I belive the qtr was 224 lbs wrapped/frozen to me.
The next 2 qtrs I bought were from another customer of mine, cheaper, it's their business, I believe they were just about 200lb..one may have been about 190.
Got a qtr 2 months ago, from a coworker's husband, he's been raising beef for 44 years, 214lb qtr.
now unless they are ALL stuffing more meat in a 'quarter' to hit 200lb I'm assuming they are all about the same size critters at harvest. None are feed lot.
the first one was better than store bought beef, the next was better and the latest is the best beef I've ever had.
from what I gather, most here feed mostly grass and hay. I assume they get some grain...but not like in a feed lot.
Those cattle were given hormones (10% weight) and a heavy corn feed with little to no movement to get that big in that amount of time.
I raise my cattle mainly on grass and they don稚 gain nearly that fast. I buy the steer calves weaned off milk (3-5 months old) around 250-400lbs lbs. I keep them till 800-1000lb depending on the season and that takes me about 12-16 months. I知 also buying a jersey or jersey cross which don稚 grow as fast as an angus or beef cattle.
So when I hear someone took 18-20 month old animal to 1600lbs plus, I know that animal didn稚 move for most of its life, was given hormones and fed a high energy feed.
