AUM's

[Denny]

Around here an AUM on crown grazing tenure is for one cow or one cow calf pair. Yrlgs are .75, Bulls are 1.5, which in my mind isn't really fair, since for during breeding season I doubt they eat much of anything at all!

I rent a couple pastures where the bull is free the owner figures he's only there 60 to 90 days and loses weight while there.I liked his thinking.

Around here most grass is rented by the pair of lump sum for a parcel no AU but we have no govt land in the mix in my area.

 

[Shortgrass]

It has been my experience that the BLM makes up the rules depending on their mood and the day of the week. An AUM was always a cow/calf pair or one bull. As far as using pounds of cow, we all know every cow utilizes feed differently and a smaller cow may eat more pounds than a larger cow.

An AUM has to be based on cow weight or else it won't be a universal definiton. A pasture that has a 600 AUM capacity, could support 100 1,000 lb cows for 6 months. If you have 1200 lb cows, the same pasture could support approximately 87, 1200 pound cows for 6 months, but the capacity of the pasture still remains 600 AUMs. 600 AUMs is 600 AUMs, whether you put 1000 lb. cows in the pasture or 1200 lb. cows.

An AUM is a universal definition. 1 AUM equals 1 pair. Prove to me EVERY 1200 pound cow eats more than EVERY 1000 pound cow and i will agree with you. I've watched skinny college kids bankrupt more than one buffet and know of portly folks who fill up on coffee and toast. Just because we clip, dry and weigh a 3 foot circle thrown over our shoulder and have a fancy formula that tells us a subjective number of cows can get turned out, doesn't mean each individual bovine fits the system. A pasture's capacity depends on where water is, how you salt and mineral, season. climate and many other "Non-numerical data" inputs. The AUM system should give us a rough estimate and instead has become gospel to the federal bureacrats who claim the land with a sweep of a pen. My opinion and not meant to offend. I just wish the successful ranchers using generations of experience and stewardship had a tenth the power of a fresh college grad from Delaware who intends to correct the wrongs inflicted by grazing! If a AUM is based soley on weight how can a 2200 pound bull equal the same AUM as a first calf heifer and her calf? :???: :wink:

:clap: We've all seen two ol' cow same age and frame score, and feed one weighing 1100 and the other 1250. Most of us own both varieties, and prefer the easy keeper. The AUM is an estimate, not an exact science.

 

[littlejoe]

Around here an AUM on crown grazing tenure is for one cow or one cow calf pair. Yrlgs are .75, Bulls are 1.5, which in my mind isn't really fair, since for during breeding season I doubt they eat much of anything at all!

I rent a couple pastures where the bull is free the owner figures he's only there 60 to 90 days and loses weight while there.I liked his thinking.

Around here most grass is rented by the pair of lump sum for a parcel no AU but we have no govt land in the mix in my area.

Bull free is kinda an 'old timer' way of doing it--which i appreciated by the few who have done it for me. And the reservation guys told me to bring as many bulls as I wanted--as they didn't like to buy any. I pay by the head/mo, and got some of the biggest damn cows in the country--but the biggest ones I bought from place i run on.