Feasibility and Effects of Increased Use of Crop Residues in Beef Cattle Rations: An Exploratory Study

Beef production is expected to be 11 percent below estimated U.S. consumption by the year 2000. An increase in forage production is a necessary condition for increasing domestic beef production. Crop residues can add to forage supplies and are economically feasible to use as feed where cattle and residues are in close proximity. Generally, however, concentrations of residues are in locations differing with the concentrations of cattle. Also, most crop residues produced in the U.S. are needed to maintain the productivity of the soils. It is more economically feasible to add crop residues to the maintenance rations of nonlactating cows, or steers, than to steer growing or finishing rations. In any case, however, more supplements in the rations, especially protein, are needed when crop residues are substituted in cattle rations for other roughages. A reduction in grain feeding to beef cattle with or without an increase in use of crop residue in the rations likely would be accompanied by increased consumer prices of beef and competing meats. Those impacts would lessen with increases in feeding value of the roughages used to replace grain in the rations.