The Arizona Cattlemen's Association Industry News - ACA Responds to Erroneous High Country Article
ACA Response to High Country News Article Statement

Fiction: "more than 85% of beef in the stores comes from cattle that have lived their entire lives in feedlots." (From High Country News Article.)

Fact: The USDA's August 2007 Cattle-on-Feed Report demonstrates that an average calf placed in a feed yard during August 2007 will spend 61% of its life on pasture and 39% of its life in a feed yard. (Note: The fiction statement uses the term beef and this calculation does not include cows harvested for beef. If you calculated cows harvested for beef into this equation the percent of time "beef" spent in a feed yard would go down even further.)

Premise: To establish the age or amount of time that an animal (calf) might spend in a feed yard,– I utilized the most recent USDA Cattle-on-Feed ("COF") Report (Issued September 21, 2007) which contains the statistical data regarding the weight of calves going into US feed yards during the month of August 2007. I then correlated the weight of these animals to an approximate age (we have approximate numbers regarding average daily gain for calves while on ranches (pasture) and really good numbers of average daily gain in feed yards). These weights were used to estimate an approximate age upon entering the feed yard and subsequently the age they would have been when they left the feed yard.

August 2007 Statistics for Calves Entering Feed Yards (from USDA COF Report)

Weight - Number of Animals
Calves under 600 pounds - 490,000
Calves 600-699 pounds - 440,000
Calves 700-799 pounds - 549,000
Calves 800 pounds and greater - 640,000
Total Calves - 2,119,000

If you assume a very conservative rate of gain, for a calf on pasture, of 2.2 pounds per day – the breakout of approximate ages for these 4 categories of calf weights would look like below:

Weight Category (divided by 2.2) - Average Age (based on 2.2 lbs. gain per day)
Calves under 600 lbs. (Avg 450 used) - 204 Days old
600-699 (Avg 650 used) - 295 Days old
700-799 (Avg 750 used) - 340 Days old
800 up (Avg 850 used) - 386 Days old

If you take the industry standard of a 1,250 pound finished weight for animal out of the feed yard and utilize a very well documented average of 2.8 pounds of gain per day for animals in a feed yard the following table demonstrates their age when leaving the feed yard:

Amount of Gain Needed to Achieve 1,250 pounds at finish - Number of days in Feed Yard Based on 2.8 lbs. of gain per day
450 pounds to 1,250 = 800 lbs. of gain needed - 285 Days
650 pounds to 1,250 = 600 lbs of gain needed - 214 Days
750 pounds to 1,250 = 500 lbs. of gain needed - 178 Days
850 pounds to 1,250 = 400 lbs. of gain needed - 142 Days

This table reflects the age of the calf going into the feed yard according to USDA's most recent "Cattle-on-Feed" Report, the amount of time in the feed yard to achieve the industry standard weight and the total days from birth to harvest:

Weight Category - Days on Pasture + Days in Feed Yard = Total Days
Calves under 600 -- 204 + 285 = 489
Calves from 600-699 -- 295 + 214 = 509
Calves from 700-799 -- 340 + 178 = 518
Calves from 800 and up -- 386 + 142 = 528

By taking the number of days in a feed yard and multiplying them in each category – by the number of animals in that category, you get a total number of days in a feed yard. Then, take the days on pasture and perform the same calculation and you arrive at the following:

After the 2,119,000 calves placed in feed yards during August 2007 are harvested they will have spent:

Days on Pasture: 663,460,000 = –61%

Days in Feed Yard: 422,412,000 –= 39%
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