In this article, we are going to walk you through how to prepare a total mixed ration for the beef cattle you care for in your barn or feedlot. This is an important thing to get right, because the way you manage the ration holds the key to improvement in both productivity and profitability. A well-formulated total mixed ration keeps your cattle gaining weight efficiently, while a poorly balanced one wastes feed, invites health problems, and eats into your margin.
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What Makes Beef Cattle Rations Different
Before getting into the details, it is worth being clear about one thing, because it shapes everything that follows. Beef cattle and dairy cows are not fed the same way, even though both benefit from a total mixed ration. Dairy cows are grouped and fed according to their stage of lactation, since the goal is steady, high-volume milk production. Beef cattle, on the other hand, are managed according to their stage of growth, because the goal is efficient, healthy weight gain up to a target finishing weight.
This means the grouping and the ration formula for beef cattle follow a different logic entirely. Instead of thinking in terms of lactating and dry groups, you think in terms of growing and finishing animals, sorted by weight and age. Getting this framework right is the foundation for everything else.
Grouping Beef Cattle for a Total Mixed Ration
You can determine how to group your cattle by considering the size of the herd, the space available, and the layout of your barn or feedlot. For beef production, animals are generally sorted into stages of growth rather than stages of lactation. The main groups look like this.
- Growing or backgrounding cattle. These are younger animals being developed on a moderate-energy ration with a higher proportion of roughage. The aim here is steady frame and muscle growth rather than rapid fattening.
- Finishing cattle. These animals are on a high-energy, grain-heavy ration designed to add weight and marbling quickly in the final phase before slaughter.
- Sorting by weight and age. Within those stages, cattle of similar weight and age are grouped together so the ration can be matched to their needs, and so smaller or younger animals are not pushed away from the feed by larger ones.
Grouping animals of similar size and stage together matters for a practical reason. When cattle of very different weights share a pen and a ration, the smaller animals often lose out at the feed bunk, and the ration that suits one group will either overfeed or underfeed the other. As with dairy systems, this kind of grouping only makes full sense once the operation reaches an accommodating size. Smaller herds may run fewer groups and adjust the amount fed instead.
Getting the Particle Size Right
When it comes to preparing the ration itself, the forages you choose are usually chopped before going through ensiling. If you want to be meticulous about it, keep the particles in the silage within a length range of roughly 3/8 to 3/4 inches. In making the ration, you should also avoid forages whose particles are too fine, and the same goes for grains that are too coarse or left whole.
The reason comes down to a behavior every cattle farmer knows well. Cattle tend to avoid long particles in their ration because they are less palatable, and instead they root around for the finer particles they prefer. This selective eating, known as sorting, is the enemy of a balanced ration.
When cattle sort their feed this way, they end up eating too many fermentable carbohydrates and not enough useful fiber. That imbalance leads to a host of metabolic disorders, with SARA, or Subacute Ruminal Acidosis, being the most common. A ration that gets sorted is no longer the balanced ration you carefully prepared. If you let your cattle sort their feed day after day, you will have lost the time, expense, and effort that went into mixing it, with nothing to show for it. This is exactly why proper particle size and thorough mixing are so important, and why a good mixer earns its keep.
Building the Beef Cattle Ration
A beef finishing ration is built to be energy dense, because energy drives weight gain. On a dry-matter basis, a typical feedlot finishing ration leans heavily on grain, with only a modest amount of roughage included to keep the rumen healthy. A common breakdown looks something like the table below, though the exact figures should always be tuned to your cattle, your feedstuffs, and the advice of a nutritionist.
| Component | Approx. Share of Dry Matter | Role in the Ration |
|---|---|---|
| Cereal grain (e.g. corn, barley) | Around 65 percent | Main energy source driving weight gain |
| By-products (e.g. distiller’s grains) | Around 20 percent | Additional energy and protein, often cost-effective |
| Roughage (silage, hay) | Around 10 percent | Maintains rumen function, guards against acidosis |
| Minerals, vitamins, additives | Around 5 percent | Balances the diet and supports overall health |
Backgrounding and growing rations look different from this. They carry a higher proportion of roughage, often in the range of 15 to 20 percent or more, because these younger animals need fiber to build frame and because a gentler, higher-roughage diet reduces the risk of digestive upset. As cattle move into the finishing phase, the roughage share drops and the grain share rises to push energy intake and weight gain. Never cut roughage out entirely, though. Even in a high-grain finishing ration, that minimum level of roughage is what keeps the rumen working and holds acidosis at bay.
“The mistake I see most often with beef rations is farmers focusing so hard on packing in energy that they forget the small slice of roughage doing the quiet work in the background. That ten percent or so of silage or hay is what keeps the rumen stable while the grain does its job. When customers tell me their cattle are going off feed or gaining unevenly, the first thing I ask about is how consistently the ration is mixed and whether that roughage is actually reaching every animal in the pen.”
Sue Su, Marketing Director, Jummos
Other Things to Watch
Beyond the formula itself, a few practical points make a real difference to how well a total mixed ration performs for beef cattle.
First, keep the ration available for as much of the day as possible, ideally close to around the clock, so that cattle can eat freely and maintain a steady intake. Managing feed refusals is part of this. Aim to keep the leftover feed in the bunk to a small percentage of what you offer, enough that the animals are not running out but not so much that feed is going to waste. If refusals climb too high, it is a signal that something is off, whether that is the amount offered, the palatability, or the mix itself. Feed that is refused by one group can often be redirected to older, hardier animals rather than thrown away.
Second, be careful about feeding grain or hay separately from the total mixed ration. If you do, keep the separate amount small, in the region of a couple of pounds per head per day. The whole advantage of a total mixed ration is that every mouthful is balanced. Once you start handing out too much feed on the side, the cattle can go back to selective eating, and the benefits of the mixed ration start to unravel.
Prepare Your Beef Cattle Ration with the Right Mixer
Preparing a good total mixed ration for beef cattle comes down to two things working together: a sound formula and a mixer that can deliver it consistently, with the right particle size and a truly even blend. That is where Jummos comes in. We offer a full line of trailed and stationary TMR mixers built to handle everything from high-roughage backgrounding rations to dense finishing diets. If you want to understand the machine side in more detail, our guide to the TMR mixer for beef cattle covers how the equipment supports your feeding program, and our overview of the TMR mixer for sale in the USA is worth a look if you are buying from that market. Curious how to get one? Drop by and ask us right away.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is a TMR for beef cattle different from one for dairy cows?
The main difference lies in the goal and therefore the grouping. Dairy cows are grouped by stage of lactation because the aim is consistent milk production, so their rations are balanced around milk yield. Beef cattle are grouped by stage of growth, from backgrounding through to finishing, because the aim is efficient weight gain toward a target slaughter weight. As a result, beef finishing rations are far more energy dense, leaning heavily on grain with only a small share of roughage, whereas dairy rations carry more forage to support rumen health and milk components.
How much roughage should a beef finishing ration contain?
A typical feedlot finishing ration contains only around 10 percent roughage on a dry-matter basis, with the bulk of the diet made up of energy-dense grain and by-products. Backgrounding and growing rations carry more, often 15 to 20 percent or higher. The important rule is that roughage should never be cut out completely, even in the highest-energy finishing diets, because that minimum level of fiber stimulates saliva flow, buffers rumen acids, and protects against subacute ruminal acidosis.
What is SARA and how does a total mixed ration prevent it?
SARA stands for Subacute Ruminal Acidosis, a common metabolic disorder that occurs when cattle consume too many rapidly fermentable carbohydrates relative to fiber, causing rumen pH to drop. It often results from cattle sorting their feed and eating mainly the grain while leaving the fiber behind. A properly mixed total mixed ration prevents this by blending grain and roughage together at the correct particle size, so the animal cannot sort, and every mouthful contains the right balance of energy and fiber to keep the rumen stable.
Why does particle size matter so much in a beef TMR?
Particle size is what determines whether cattle can sort their feed. If forage particles are too long, cattle pick around them and eat the finer, grain-rich portions instead, unbalancing their intake. If the mix is too fine, there is not enough physical fiber to stimulate proper rumen function. Keeping silage particles in the right range, roughly 3/8 to 3/4 inches, and mixing thoroughly without overmixing, produces a ration that cattle eat as a whole rather than picking apart, which is central to steady gains and rumen health.
Reviewed by Sue Su, Marketing Director of Jummos, on August 17, 2026. The beef cattle ration and grouping details were checked against current beef nutrition guidance to correct earlier dairy-focused information and keep the article accurate.