The decades of the 1970s and 1980s have seen beef cattle treated more as a business than as a way of life. Dramatically changing interest and inflation rates have put the beef cattle industry under severe financial stress. At the same time, scientific advances in nutrition, reproduction and breeding have greatly increased the potential efficiency of beef production. The advent of the microcomputer has given every cattle producer the ability to evaluate new technology in his operation. Increasingly, the cattlemen who are able to make profits from beef cattle enterprises are those who are able to merge new production technology with traditional management and flexible marketing programs. The eighth edition of Beef Cattle addresses these changes in the industry and has been largely revised, updated and expanded to incorporate more current information.