Again that becomes a matter for personal choice. The old adage still holds true its quality that counts not quantity. I believe that an animal cannot be made to grow beyond it's genetic potential. Therefore cattle can reach their genetic potential merely by ensuring that they have access to adequate food. Excess feeding can produce a fat animal but it will never make it grow into a larger frame size than its genetics allow.
Excess fat can also lead to many other problems including reduced reproductive performance.
Effects of inadequate feeding Inadequate feeding will of course produce a smaller animal. To go a stage further it can be said that inadequate nutrition at any point prior to an animal reaching maturity will affect its growth rate. Depending on the length of inadequate feeding it may be impossible to ever catch up on what would have been the normal growth for that animal. All pages and photos contained in this web site are either copyright ofCruachan Highland Cattle or the stated information source.