Effects of Planting Date and Forage Allowance on Steer Growth Performance and Grain Yield in a Dual-Purpose Winter Wheat System 1 1 This material is based upon work supported by the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under Award Numbers 2001-34198-10403 and 2003-34198-13358

Two planting dates (early: September 4 and 5; late: September 25 and 26) for dual-purpose winter wheat in 16 cleantilled pastures, along with 162 crossbred steers (initial BW = 236 ± 6 kg) were used in a completely randomized design during the 2002 to 2003 winter wheat season. Steers were stratified by initial BW and randomly allotted to 4 initial stocking rates within each planting date. Average forage allowances ranged from 217 to 980kg of DM/100kg of BW for early-planted wheat, and 162 to 709kg of DM/100kg of BW for late-planted wheat. Early planting provided 24 more grazing days than late planting (120 vs. 96 d). Average daily gain, overall steer gain, and grain yield all responded in a quadratic (P