According to the United States Department of Agriculture (U.S.D.A.) there are approximately 25,000,000 to 33,000,000 head of feed cattle that move through Custom and Commercial Cattle Feedyards annually. A "Cattle on Feed Report" is available for producers and consumers to view on a semi-annual basis provided by the U.S.D.A.

The feed cattle enterprise is a fairly large industry where millions of dollars move through these Custom and Private cattle feeding facilities every year. The business of feeding cattle is based on a commodity market mechanism. Both the corn and the cattle are bought and sold via commodity market prices. This makes for huge variations within the final outcome of profit and loss within the enterprise. However, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) provides producers with price protection in the form of Options or Hedges preventing much loss and volatility with the final outcome of the cattle feeding enterprise. Additionally, forward contracts and pre-paying for feedstuffs counteracts the variables in both raw commodities.

 Style of Feeding

There are many segments of the USA cattle business.

1. Seed stock, where producers breed for improved genetics
2. Cow/calf, where ranchers and farmers raise cows and calves for commercial production
3. Stocker/grower, where producers place light weight calves on pasture, wheat or corn stocks
4. Grow yards/back grounding facilities, where high forage diets are fed to light weight feeder calves weighing 350 pounds (160 kg) to 500 pounds (230 kg) to be fed to the weight of 750 pounds (340 kg) to 900 pounds (410 kg) pounds
5. Custom/Commercial Finishing yards, where cattle are fed to harvest at the weight of 1,000 pounds (450 kg) to 1,500 pounds (680 kg) pounds. Once the fed cattle are sold for harvest they are shipped for processing and distribution to the consumer.

 Use of growth stimulants

Antibiotics are routinely added to grain feed as a growth stimulant. Livestock consume 70% of the antibiotics in the United States.^[6] This practice widely contributes to the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, including MRSA.^[7] The most common form of antibiotics are called ionophores. Ionophores were originally developed as coccidiostats for poultry and prevent coccidiosis in cattle as well. Ionophores work by improving both feed efficiency and growth rate and lower methane production as one result. Ionophores have not been shown to create antibiotic-resistant MRSA