Cattle don't just live and die. No an effective rancher has a very specific and strategic calendar that he uses to determine when certain events should transpire through out the life a cow. Simplyenough this is a very broad overview of the life of a bovine.

The beef lifecycle is perhaps one of the most unique and complex life cycles of any food. It takes anywhere from 2-3 years to bring beef from farm to fork. Each caretaker along the way specializes in a key area of a cows life providing the proper car, nutrition and animal health that the animal needs at that specific point in its life.

Here is a blog post by the Peterson Farm Brothers. They are a family owned farm around Salina, KS that shares the true story about agriculture. You should definitely check this out!

The 7 steps of an overview of a beef lifecycle would be:

1. Cow calf ranch

2. Weaning

3. Stockers and backgrounders

4. Livestock auction markets

5. Feedyard

6. Packing pkant

7. For service and retail

The following video will expand on these steps:

Here is a fun and interactive game that can help you familiarize more with the beef lifecycle.

In the end, the goal is to get from

TO

This is the end product. What the previous work comes down to is the food that is put on your plate!