What are stocker cattle?

Answer 1

Stocker cattle refer to weaned steers and heifers of 6 to 10 months of age that are put on a high-forage diet of pasture grass/legume mix, and/or a mix of hay, grain and/or silage. On most farms, stockers are fed this hay/silage/grain mix during winter months or times when pasture is scarce, and grazed on pasture when grass is plentiful, with daily supplementation of some grain, if necessary.

The purpose of putting weaned calves on this diet instead of putting them in the feedlot to finish as soon as they come off their dams is that it promotes growth of primarily bone, muscle and other tissues over fat. A weaned calf will put on too much fat too soon over muscle when raised on a high-grain or "hot" diet, resulting in a lot of waste to trim off at slaughter and not enough meat to put on the market. Meat packers want moderately lean, large carcasses with plenty of muscle, not small carcasses with a lot of fat on them. In order to meet this demand, weaned cattle that are not used for breeding purposes have to first go through the backgrounding/stocker phase to have a chance to actually grow, before being finished for slaughter.