Although highly depending where, there definitely was. You can read about it in the Parisian farmers practice in the 19th century for example (not sure there's much material in English though)
> Animals also eat.
I'm curious: what do you think they were eating?
Livestock was and is used to convert plants humans can't eat into milk and meat that we can. Even modern grass-finished beef is raised mostly eating grasses. Grains are really expensive compared to some grass growing in a field. I don't understand why people think it would be even close to economical for a rancher to raise an animal over 1000 pounds on grain alone. That beef would be more expensive than any wagyu.
Animals also eat. There was never an abundance of fertilizer before industrial processes.