The first step in cattle production begins with the people who own cows and raise calves . They are the cow / calf producers -- we often call them ranchers . They care for the land , the grasses , the water supply , the cows and calves . Cows are usually kept in large pastures . Often ranchers move their herds from one pasture to another as they monitor how much grass the cows and calves eat . Sometimes you will find ranches in places where the land is unsuitable to grow crops . Places too cold , too dry , and too rough for cultivating plants will naturally grow grasses and forbs . Cattle can graze these places . In areas where winter brings cold and snow , ranchers feed hay to their cattle .
Like other mammals , cows provide milk to their calves . As the calves grow they eat more grasses and need less of the milk provided by the cow . When the calves are six to seven months old , the ranchers wean the calves from the cows . This means they separate the cows and calves . A cow will naturally wean her calf at about this same time . She will kick at her calf and move away from it so it will quit sucking her udder for milk . For the rancher , it is easier to separate all the cows and calves at the same time and move them to different areas on the ranch . The calves weigh between 400 and 500 pounds when weaned . This is often when ranchers will sell the calves . Usually the ranchers will keep some of the heifer calves to replace cows that are getting too old to raise calves .
The buyer of the calves might take these calves and let them eat corn stalks ( the part of the corn plant left in the field after the corn has been harvested ) or the calves might go to wheat or other pastures . Some calves may go to feedlots . Often these buyers will keep the calves for four to five months . They sell them when the cattle weigh around 800 pounds . This step in beef production is called backgrounding . The people are called backgrounders .
From the backgrounders , the steers and heifers are sold to a feedlot operator . The feedlot operator keeps the cattle for four to five months . They feed corn , hay and silage ( chopped corn stalks ) to the cattle . Sometimes they will feed the cattle broken cookies and pastries from bakeries , citrus peels , nut hulls , brewers grain from making beer , hulls from processing wheat , or other grains and cabbage and vegetables that are unsuitable for humans . This is one of the ways cattle are great recyclers . Feedlot operators carefully monitor the nutrition of different feeds the cattle are eating . The steers and heifers grow fast now and will gain three to four pounds of weight per day . When the cattle weigh about 1,200 pounds the feedlot operator will sell the cattle to a packer .