One advantage of beef cattle, and other range stock like goats and sheep, is that they can (and quite often do) get the majority of their diet from rangeland. Land too poor to support other uses, even grain (cereal) crops -- too little rain, too rocky, too steep; in the West often all of the above. In some parts of the world, this is the way range stock are raised 100%. Here most often they are moved to feedlots for the last 2-3 months to fatten them up and make them more palatable for Western tastes. But they can be consumed straight from the range, if needed. They're tougher than you're used to and they have a stronger, gamier taste depending on what sort of range they've been grazing. But range stock can provide a significant amount of protein with minimal management and minimal input of other feed.