Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson famously said, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” While he was referring to strategy in the boxing ring, the same holds true for starting lightweight (sometimes called peewee) calves.

Forage is the foundation for grazing beef cattle diets. Unfortunately, the perfect forage simply doesn’t exist, even with ideal growing conditions.

The nuance of feeding breeding stock takes on greater dimension compared to feeder cattle because of the long-term considerations required of breeding stock. In a broad sense, the goal with replacement heifers is to give them the nutritional foundation for success that will hopefully allow them to produce eight to 10 big, healthy calves in their productive lifetime.