Long-Term Cattle Performance Focus of Research Review, Call for Collaboration
Vaccination, weaning, stocking rates examined to determine feedlot performance
By John Lovett – Nov. 21, 2025
RESEARCH ROUNDUP — A special issue of Applied Animal Sciences gathers long-term cattle research studies on health, nutrition and management effects on feedlot performance. (U of A System Division of Agriculture photo)
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Despite the United States’ long and storied past with cattle ranching, long-term research on health, nutrition and management is rarely wrangled, hamstrung by budget constraints and the segmented nature of the industry.
Most feedlot finishing in the United States occurs in the Great Plains region, while cow-calf operations focusing on grazing are largely outside of those locations, said Daniel Rivera, an associate professor of animal science for the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, the research arm of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. He is also director of the Southwest Research and Extension Center in Hope.
This segmented nature of the industry makes it challenging for university research outside of the Plains and Midwest to follow the cattle from finishing to slaughter, Rivera explained.
As part of an effort to better evaluate how pre-weaned calf and stocker calf treatments influence feedlot performance, Rivera and Paul Beck, a professor and extension specialist for beef nutrition with Oklahoma State University’s department of animal and food sciences, published a summary of research on the topic.
The review article, titled “Perspective and Commentary: Summary of the Special Issue on calf stocker performance effects on feedlot performance and thoughts on future research,” was published in a special issue of Applied Animal Sciences, the American Registry of Professional Animal Scientists’ official journal.
“The goal of this special issue was to identify and address some of the knowledge gaps imposed on the segmented nature of the beef industry, which leads to segmented areas of research on cow-calf, stocker and feedlot operations,” said Rivera, one of journal’s associate editors.
“One of the more evident things that we found in our call for papers was that there’s just very few data out there on long-term studies, starting on the cow-calf side and carrying it all the way through to what ends up on the plate,” Rivera said.
In their paper, Rivera and Beck break down results from seven original research articles and two review articles into three topic areas: health, nutrition, and production and management.
Research highlight roundup
The health section highlighted two studies looking at the effects of vaccinating for respiratory pathogens like bovine respiratory disease, or BRD, on calves and their mothers.
One of the studies hypothesized that the lack of response from vaccinating 60 to 90-day-old calves may have been because the cattle were “well managed and not leaving the home area, which would reduce the exposure to pathogens.” Likewise, a study on vaccinating 30-to-60-day-old calves suggested that while “recent research has demonstrated some benefit to vaccination while maternal antibodies are still present … no long-term effects were noted.”
Another study in the health section showed that “increasing colostrum quality and quantity may be a benefit of vaccinating the dam against BRD, with some data suggesting that it might affect morbidity and mortality at the feedlot.” Colostrum is a nutrient-rich, milk-like fluid produced by cattle after giving birth.
A review article published in the special issue looked at data from multiple studies across three states between 2008 and 2023, noting that the average daily weight gain of stocker cattle during grazing and at the feedlot decreased as the treatments for BRD increased before the stocker phase.
Supplementation for better nutrition
For the nutrition section of the special issue, research was gathered looking at supplementation strategies on cow-calf production and how they might affect feedlot performance.
Since no effects were detected in a three-year study on supplementation rates, the research surmised that flex supplementation, or adjusting supplementation strategies based on real-time factors, instead of a full supplementation rate, may be an efficient management tool for the winter months to reduce costs. However, this study’s authors noted that these types of studies have inconsistent results.
In a separate four-year study, researchers compared the effects of wet distiller’s grain with a soybean-milo mix versus no supplementation, to gauge the performance of beef steers grazing rangeland late in the grazing season. Despite greater weight gain on pasture, no effects carried over into the finishing period or affected carcass characteristics, the authors noted.
Production and management factors
Among the studies for the production and management section are those looking at the effects of different weaning processes on feedlot performance, and the effects of the stocking rate of pregnant cows on the growth and performance of calves.
Examining studies published between 1995 and 2024, Rivera and Beck’s article noted that weaning management options that decrease stress “may have a positive effect on subsequent performance; however, little research was found examining these effects.” Also, cumulative strategies for cattle grazing on toxic-infested tall fescue had limited effects on feedlot performance, although data were limited. Based on one study, cattle breed might affect feedlot performance.
Comparing beef and dairy steers to a 217-day grazing period before feedlot finishing or being sent directly to a feedlot after weaning showed that the grazed steers had greater average daily weight gain, feed consumption, and feed efficiency and required fewer days on feed compared with steers shipped directly to the feedlot.
A two-year study looking at the extended effects of different weaning methods showed that while fence-line weaved calves had the greatest average daily weight gain during the first 30 days of backgrounding on bermudagrass hay and dried distillers grain with solubles, there were no effects of weaning method or backgrounding program on feedlot performance or carcass characteristics after being shipped 18 hours to a commercial feedlot.
A long-term analysis using nearly 2,000 records of stocking rates on calves from 1978 to 2012 showed that multiple factors influenced calf performance from birth to slaughter, such as calving season, cow age, calf sex, gestational stocking rate, and lactation stocking rate. In general, the high stocking rate negatively affected calf performance before weaning.
Current Division of Agriculture faculty members who took part in studies published in the special issue included Shane Gadberry, a professor of animal science and assistant vice president of Agriculture and Natural Resources for the Cooperative Extension Service, and Dan Quadros, an assistant professor of animal science and small ruminant specialist for the Cooperative Extension Service.
In their conclusions, Rivera and Beck note that while there is consistent information within various segments of research, including feedlot performance and carcass characteristics, data regarding long-term effects needs to be collected in a more standardized way among various research locations. Well-coordinated collaboration between research facilities is needed to bridge the gap and overcome the annual budgeting cycle, they added.
Beck said that the collaborative university research would require experts in many different sections of animal science, from reproduction experts, nutritionists, physiologists, geneticists and meat scientists to agricultural economists.
To learn more about the Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website. Follow us on 𝕏 at @ArkAgResearch, subscribe to the Food, Farms and Forests podcast and sign up for our monthly newsletter, the Arkansas Agricultural Research Report. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit uada.edu. Follow us on 𝕏 at @AgInArk. To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit uaex.uada.edu.
About the Division of Agriculture
The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture’s mission is to strengthen agriculture, communities, and families by connecting trusted research to the adoption of best practices. Through the Agricultural Experiment Station and the Cooperative Extension Service, the Division of Agriculture conducts research and extension work within the nation’s historic land grant education system.
The Division of Agriculture is one of 20 entities within the University of Arkansas System. It has offices in all 75 counties in Arkansas and faculty on three campuses.
Pursuant to 7 CFR § 15.3, the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture offers all its Extension and Research programs and services (including employment) without regard to race, color, sex, national origin, religion, age, disability, marital or veteran status, genetic information, sexual preference, pregnancy or any other legally protected status, and is an equal opportunity institution.
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