How Many Young Beef Cows Can You Have Per Acre
Writer(s): Greg Halich
Published: July 28th, 2020
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In May 2019, I was on a farm visit east of Lexington with a few county agents and NRCS specialists. Our goal was to help a cattle farmer who had nearly five years of experience come with a long-run programme for improved infrastructure (water, fencing, etc.) besides as guide him in the short-run to ameliorate the profitability of the farm.
It was rapidly clear that the farm was significantly overstocked. Information technology was mid-May and the pastures looked more like what you would expect in late July or August, not like what pastures should look like at their elevation production. The pasture was one large unit without any subdivisions and was beingness continuously grazed by the cattle.
Nosotros plant out later that he had near 95 acres of open up pasture acres (afterwards subtracting out woods and brush) and around 45 cows. This put his stocking rate at just over ii acres of pasture per cow. 2 acres of pasture per cow is sometimes used as a rule-of-thumb every bit what is needed to support a beef cow in Kentucky. However, the soil quality of those acres, every bit well as direction intensity are important factors that besides need to be considered. Ii acres of gently rolling Maury Silt loam in cardinal Kentucky combined with well-managed rotational grazing will provide a lot more grazing than ii acres of steep hillside Eden Shale dirt combined with continuous grazing. Cow size will also have an touch. You can run a lot more moderate-framed 1200 lb cows on a given farm then you can 1800 lb behemoths.
Moreover, the two-acre per cow generalization does not define what "supporting" a moo-cow means. Does information technology mean being able to graze through December on an average year, or does it mean the farmer will start having to feed hay by early Oct in an average year, and late summer if there is fifty-fifty a mild drought? I would fence that with more typical soils and management found in Kentucky, the two-acre stocking charge per unit generalization would more than likely than not issue in the later hay feeding situation. The farm we were visiting was comprised more often than not of steep Eden Shale clay, was beingness continuously grazed past the cattle, and was feeding over 150 days of hay per year.
Nosotros spent over two hours touring the farm and had a discussion in the shade before leaving. There were a lot of suggestions most means to improve the farm, and well-nigh of these the farmer agreed with. However, when I mentioned that i of his cardinal issues on the farm was that he was overstocked and that by reducing the number of cows he could increase his profitability quicker than just anything else we suggested, he seemed perplexed. Paraphrasing what he said but slightly: "How could having fewer cows, and selling fewer calves possibly make you more money?" He was of course, focused on the revenue side of the profit equation.
What he was not considering is how much the cost side of the equation could go down by stocking at a lower rate. The biggest cost that decreases with a lower stocking charge per unit is hay price: non only overall hay cost ($ for the entire farm), but also the hay cost per cow. Past having fewer cows, you will exist able to graze further into the fall or winter, equally well equally start grazing a footling before in the spring. Thus, hay cost per cow would get down.
Having fewer cows (compared to an overstocked farm) besides results in better quality fodder, on average, going into the rumen of the cow, both during the grazing season and during those days where the overstocked farm is feeding hay while the farm with the lower stocking charge per unit is still grazing. This improved fodder quality has two positive effects on performance: 1) Increased conception/weaning rates, and ii) Increased weaning weights for the calves. Greg Brann, retired Tennessee NRCS grazing specialist (now doing consulting piece of work related to grazing and soil wellness https://gregbrann.com/) noticed how drastically these performance measures improved on farms with lower stocking rates based on the thousands of cattle farms he visited in Tennessee and surrounding states. He besides said most people never considered them as possible benefits of reduced stocking rates.
Getting dorsum to the cattle farm east of Lexington, how many cows should this farmer reduce his moo-cow herd by to exist most profitable? It was clear that reducing his stocking rate from the current level would help with profitability, but at what bespeak should he stop? Would he exist virtually assisting at 2.5 acres per cow, 3 acres per cow, or iv acres per moo-cow?
I take been working on this question for the terminal few years. One thing that I learned is that yous cannot respond the stocking rate question directly. As mentioned before, two acres of pasture is not ever equivalent to another two acres of pasture. Direction styles differ considerably, and two different farms on the same type of ground may need different stocking rates to achieve the same grazing goals. Thus, the question needs to be framed slightly differently: Instead of trying to make up one's mind what is the most profitable stocking charge per unit for all farms, we need to instead determine the most profitable number of hay feeding days for a given subcontract. If for example, the near assisting hay feeding days turned out to be three months, that might be equivalent to 2.v acres of pasture per moo-cow on i farm, and iii.5 acres of pasture per cow on another farm. You lot would take to estimate what actual stocking rate would go y'all to that hay-feeding rate based on the management and productivity of each farm.
The bones tradeoff in estimating the optimal hay feeding days is this: by reducing the stocking charge per unit, we sell fewer calves, but at the same time nosotros also reduce our costs/moo-cow, likewise as increasing the acquirement per dogie slightly (through the higher weaning rates and weaning weights). The other ii major factors that impact the decision are hay cost per ton, likewise as the overall cattle market. If the price of hay is high, the optimal hay feeding days will shift down (you lot will want a lower stocking rate). If the overall cattle market is loftier (like in 2014), the optimal hay feeding hays volition shift upward (you will want a higher stocking charge per unit). In other words, if we knew we were going to be able to sell calves for $2.l/lb, the reduced costs from lowering our stocking rate would not likely outweigh selling fewer calves and giving up $1000-1200 per head.
Results:
Table 1 shows the results for the about profitable hay feeding days given an estimated internet hay cost. This assumes a cattle market that is slightly above electric current levels, where a 525 lb steer/heifer boilerplate calf is selling for $1.50/lb. Net hay cost is the cost or value of the hay minus the net fertilizer value. For example, a 5'x5' bale is typically effectually 1000 lbs or half a ton. If the cost per bale was $35, the cost per ton would be $70. The net nutrient value will vary substantially, from $0-25 per ton. Most farms are probably in the $5-10 per ton range. Thus if we valued the nutrient value at $10 per ton, the internet hay price for this farm (hay minus food value) would be $70 – $10, or $60 per ton. For more details on how to estimate the nutrient value of the hay fed on your farm go to the post-obit article: https://www.progressiveforage.com/forage-product/management/fertilizer-value-of-hay-feeding
Depending on the estimated net hay cost, the most assisting hay feeding ranges from 0 – 120 days. The net hay price for nigh farms in Kentucky will probably be at or slightly in a higher place the $lx/ton level. Given this likely net hay cost, the well-nigh profitable number of hay feeding days will be in the lx-90 solar day range, or two to iii months of hay feeding for the average Kentucky farm. For further details of the analysis, encounter the following article in Progressive Forages: https://world wide web.progressiveforage.com/fodder-product/management/picking-apples-off-the-grazing-tree-part-iii-the-stocking-rate-hay-feeding-trade-off
How do these results adapt to the bulk of beef cattle farms in Kentucky? Acknowledging that we do non have official statistics on hay feeding days, I practice regularly ask county agents what their approximate is for their county. The usual response is around 120 days or four months of hay feeding, with the range somewhere between 100-150 days. If these estimates are accurate, we are feeding a lot more hay then we should be, and thus accept a lot of room to better profitability.
I have been criticized by hard-core grazing proponents for not providing a unified bulletin promoting less hay feeding, fifty-fifty though for the average farm in Kentucky that is exactly what I have been advocating. While most farms are probably feeding too much hay, there is a smaller number that are not feeding plenty and have pushed the "grazing is cheaper than hay feeding" envelope also far.
I presented on this topic at the Tennessee Grazing for Profit briefing a few years agone and a young cattle farmer came up to me later on the presentation. He seemed perplexed: he had read in a grazing magazine and heard at another briefing that grazing is always cheaper than feeding hay. My results contradicted the message that you lot should strive for feeding no hay on your cattle farm. I asked him how he was going to become to the signal of non feeding any hay on his farm. He said he was told to just continue grazing through the winter and to not feed hay! I tried to tell him in as kind words as I could observe that this was wishful thinking, and that wishful thinking will not provide grass for the cows to eat on a cold, windy February day.
This young cattle farmer seemed merely as perplexed as the farmer on those steep Eden Shale slopes. He did not empathise the hay-feeding and stocking-rate tradeoff, and idea he could continually reduce his winter hay feeding without at some betoken reducing his stocking charge per unit, and consequently (if successful in feeding no hay) would cease up with a stocking rate that was also low. The farmer east of Lexington too did not understand the hay-feeding and stocking-rate tradeoff, but was on the other side of the proverbial misinformation contend. Consequently, he was stocked mode likewise high.
The ii-acre per cow rule of pollex may have had a purpose and may have been useful i-two generations ago. Possibly cattle prices were considerably higher relative to hay costs at that time, thus increasing the range of most profitable hay feeding days. Possibly the average cow size was a lot smaller. I practice not know for sure. However, in our current era, at that place are few soil-management-cow size combinations in Kentucky that I believe ii acres per moo-cow will be annihilation close to the most profitable stocking rate, and will likely lead to a steady flow of losses.
I would rather not have a rule-of-thumb for anything that is equally variable every bit stocking rates. If someone new to cattle is seeking guidance on how many cows their 100 acre farm tin can handle, I would rather non tell them a specific number without additional explanation. I retrieve it is better to initially say something like: "whatever the number of cattle your farm can handle to keep your total hay feeding days in the 2-iii calendar month range". That might involve starting out with three-four acres per cow (25-33 cows on the 100 acre farm) and seeing what it results in, and slowly adjusting the stocking rate to reach and stay in that optimal hay feeding range. It will not necessarily be a static number. Improvements over fourth dimension in grazing management and/or soil quality will allow an increase in stocking rates.
Given Kentucky's unique fodder base and climate, we have the potential to be ane of the lowest-cost producers of calves in the state. That was a gift bestowed on us past a college order. How nosotros cull to take stewardship of that gift is up to each of u.s.a.. Will we be lean and mean, or shiny and bloated? The quickest way for virtually farms in Kentucky to get back on the path of low-cost product is to base their stocking charge per unit on profitability, not bragging rights based on maximum production. For nigh of our farms that will mean feeding less (merely not zero) hay. Getting rid of the ii-acre per cow rule-of-thumb and aiming for sixty-ninety days of hay feeding will become well-nigh farms pointed in the right direction.
Author(s) Contact Data:
Greg Halich | Associate Extension Professor | greg.halich@uky.edu
Assisting Stocking Rates was one of the topics covered at the Cow-Dogie Profitability Conferences held this past wintertime. The focus of these conferences is to identify drains on profitability and provide options to remedy them. The conferences were postponed due to Covid-xix. Contact your county ANR agent to find out when they will resume, hopefully past late fall, as well equally the locations they will exist offered. When available, dates and locations will as well exist announced on our Extension Events page and Facebook page.
Source: https://agecon.ca.uky.edu/sacred-cows-and-stocking-rates
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