ABSTRACT
Cattlemen are caught in a squeeze between the rising costs of grazing land, feed grains, interest on money, labor, nitrogen, fuel, and other inputs on one side and the price competition of lower-priced pork and poultry products in the consumer markets on the other side. A more refined philosophy of exploring every possible avenue to reduce the cost of producing high-quality, leaf beef seems much more appropriate. Production of beef and lamb require about 5 times as much feed energy as poultry meat, and nearly 3 times as much as lean pork. Increased twinning in beef cattle would certainly represent a major change in objectives. Increased calf-crop percentage weaned would reduce the replacement, maintenance, and fixed cow herd costs per unit of marketed beef output. Net merit equals economic efficiency or the minimum total cost to produce a unit of high quality lean beef.
