We have two cattle herds, one where we live and one on Ron's mother's farm about 10 miles away. The mother cows have their offspring on pasture and suckle them for about 6 months before we wean the calves and begin to fatten them. All of our feeder cattle are hand fed twice a day. They are either on grass or are fed hay and gradually offered a corn ration. This ration is increased until they reach butcher weight, which for us is 1,000-1,100 pounds live. Of course, no antibiotics or hormones are ever used in their feed to promote growth or weight gain. Also, there are no "mad cow" worries as there is not any meat meal used in our rations.