Interesting... Ours are slaughtered in the fall at the end of grass season. The heifers who remain and one bull and the yearlings eat hay all winter, then back on grass pasture.
We love our home-raised beef!
We were trying to get them a bit bigger by keeping them over the winter; they were only Holstein steers we got from a friend, not a real beef cattle breed.
It was grain and hay that they were fed during the winter months.
Since we had such a mild fall up here on The Frozen Tundra, our Mule didn’t need hay until nearly December; he could graze in the meadow up until then!
We’re not going to eat Ithaca, though. ;)