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Sorting Cattle

Last week we talked about sorting cattle by frame size to take advantage of your best marketing and feeding alternatives. Listed is a reference for these frame sizes.

Large frame (L) Large frame feeder cattle have large skeletons and are tall and long bodied for their age. Most large frame feeder steers and heifers would generally produce a U.S. Choice grade carcass (usually 0.5 inch of fat at the 12th rib) at about 1,200 pounds or more for steers and about 1,000 pounds or more for heifers.

Medium frame (M) Medium frame feeder cattle have slightly large frames and are slightly long bodied for their age, and have about 0.5 inch of fat cover, medium frame steers would weigh between 1,000 and 1,200 pounds and heifers between 850 and 1,000 pounds.

Small frame (S) Small frame feeder cattle are shorter bodied and shorter in height than medium frame feeder cattle, with about 0.5 inch external fat cover (approximately U.S. Choice grade), small frame steers generally weigh less than 1,000 pounds and small frame heifers will finish at less than 850 pounds.

A good sorting system from The Mercantile will aid in maximizing your marketing and feeding alternatives this year.

Originally Published September 2005