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By far, most U.S. cattle feeding operations are small, with fewer than 1,000 head. However, the 5 percent of operations with more than 1,000 head finish more than 80 percent of fed cattle.

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Cactus Feeders of Amarillo, Texas, ranked first among U.S. cattle feeders in the early 2010s with 500 workers and $750 million in annual sales. It owned 10 feedlots in Texas and Kansas with a capacity for 520,000 head of cattle. Cargill Cattle Feeders of Wichita, Kansas, was the second largest in the industry with four feedlots in Texas, Kansas, and Colorado. Feeding more than 600,000 head of cattle annually, Cargill Cattle had 2006 sales of $552 million and 850 employees. Agri Beef Co. of Boise, Idaho, had four feedlots in Idaho, Kansas, and Washington and 1,000 employees. Sales for Agri Beef were $342 million in 2005.

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Generally, most producers find 300 square feet per
head to be adequate pen space. Space may be reduced
if the facilities are being located in the western third of
the state. In the drier climates, space is often reduced
to 200 to 250 square feet per head.

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Approximately 1 acre of land
is required per 100 head for pen space, alleys, and feed
roads.

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Along with the trend to larger and more specialized cow/calf ranches, the Canadian cattle industry has evolved toward more specialization in the grain feeding of slaughter cattle. Feedlots range in size from a few hundred head capacity to very modern operations feeding over 40,000 animals at one time.

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niteowl said:You believe that cattle are held in some large building
from birth to harvest, and are never let into a field to feed

........and this is a figment of your imagination

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niteowl said:cattle cant be raised in a barn, they have to be feed in a field

you're buying into a bunch of fear based propaganda
and refuse to dig deep enough to see that its just propaganda

you WANT to believe that cattle are being treated this way
and there is nothing I can do to change someones belief on a forum

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Preconditioning
prepares calves to enter feedlots by putting them through a health program of different vaccinations, weaning them from their mothers, and getting the calves on dry feeds. Preconditioning is designed to mitigate the transitional period between weaning and dry feeding for calves entering feedlots

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The job of the cattle feeder is to walk the fine line between reducing rumen disorders at the expense of performance, and maximizing performance while risking acidosis, bloat, liver abscesses and sudden death. Thus the goals of maximum intake and consistent intake must both be met for optimum performance and health.

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We know that implants improve feedlot performance. The TexasTech implant database would say that on
average, estrogen only implants like Synovex® S increase average daily gain (ADG) byabout 12% and reduce feed to gain ratio (F/G) by about 7% over non- implanted steers. Duckett and Andrae (2001) reported similar numbers and also reported that estrogen only implants increase hot carcass weight (HCW) by about 3% over non-implanted cattle.

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