
This steer will be ready for slaughter when it reaches 1100 lbs. There is a target slaughter weight corresponding to each frame score.įor example, a 9-month old steer with a hip height of 44.3 inches has a frame score of 4.

Frame scores are assigned on a scale from 1 to 9, with 1 being the smallest and 9 being the largest-framed cattle. Frame scoringįrame scoring is simply a way of categorizing beef cattle from smallest to largest based on their size (hip height).
Weight of 4 year old argus monitor how to#
And then I answer some important questions about how to integrate this technique into your cattle finishing strategy, both for grass finishing and grain finishing programs. In this article I explain exactly how to measure your cattle and I give you the look-up tables to find the target slaughter weight for every individual animal on your farm. This technique is the core of every successful beef finishing operation, regardless of whether the cattle are finished on grass or on grain and regardless of whether the cattle are finished in a feedlot or out on wide open pastures. This simple technique allows you to know the ideal slaughter weight of every steer, heifer, cow or bull on your farm before you send them away to be slaughtered! In other words, you can figure out the ideal slaughter weight of your beef cattle simply by measuring their hip height and then using that measurement to look up the corresponding target slaughter weight on a table. Luckily there is an easier way thanks to studies that correlate frame size (bone structure) and slaughter weight.

In an ideal world you would be able to x-ray your live cattle to see, on a microscopic scale, when their beef has sufficient fat cells to make it tender and flavorful.

But how do you know when your beef cattle are fat enough?
