Technical Abstract: Crossbred steer (n=297) and heifer (n=125) calves were used in three experiments to determine the impact of restrictive ADG during the winter grazing period on subsequent BW gains. Calves were born in the spring, weaned in the fall and transported from Northwest Arkansas (Exp. 1 and 2) or Southwest Texas (Exp. 3) to Central Oklahoma for grazing and finishing. Upon arrival calves were assigned to one of the following treatments; 1) grazing winter wheat pasture, 2) grazing dormant tallgrass native prairie plus supplemental CP, or 3) limit fed a high energy diet. In March, winter stocker treatments (121 d) were ended and calves grazed cool season grasses (76 d) until June when the feedlot phase began. In the feedlot phase, calves were either assigned to conventional total confinement finishing system or to a warm season grass pasture managed under intensive early stocking (9.9 calves/ha) followed by ad libitum access to a high-energy diet. Caves on dormant native pasture gained less weight during the winter than calves on wheat pasture. Restricting winter ADG did not affect weigh gains during the spring grazing period, but did increase feedlot ADG by 23.5%. Calves finished on pasture with ad libitum access to a high energy diet had greater net returns than calves finished in confinement. Producers must retain ownership of calves through the feedlot phase to take advantage of any compensatory gain built into stocker during the winter. A production system that includes intensive early stocking of warm season grass pastures followed by ad libitum access to a high energy diet can be used to produce finished beef carcasses more economically than under total confinement.