Land Requirements for Grass-Fed Beef

[westernkansas]

I am working on a project for my agriculture class, and I need to determine the amount of land required for grazing, grass-fed cattle in the United States.

Does anyone have an estimate for the average amount of land required for cattle who are grass fed and grazed only (no supplemental feed)?

I have come across an estimate of 2.5 acres/cow, but I was not sure if this was accurate.

I would appreciate any answers or resources. Thanks.

 

[Doug Thorson]

In the United States is too broad a question. Up here in South Dakota we need 20 acres to run a cow for a year if we sell the calf at weaning. Western Minnesota can run at 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 acre to run the same cow for the same result. You will have to be more regoinally specific.

 

[Faster horses]

Here in SE Montana it takes 25 acres to run a cow and you still feed hay
5 months out of the year.

 

[Larrry]

Probably in western Kansas you need 30 acres to run a cow for the year.
Now in Utah I always figgured it took thirty acres and a sack lunch each day. :wink:

 

[Mike]

You'll need a good "Rotational Grazing" plan to maximize the grass.

I've seen it done with 2-3 steers to the acre down here with the proper setup. They consistently gained 2 lbs. per day & a little hay goes a long way.

"Mob Grazing" in short periods of time seems keep the hoof damage to grass at a minimum.

Gary Wofford, Kevin Fulton, Chad Peterson, Greg Judy and Mark Brownlee are "mob" men – mob grazing, that is. The term refers to short-duration, high-intensity grazing of many cattle on a small area of pasture, moved several times a day to new forage.

To understand mob grazing, imagine how millions of bison moved for centuries without fences.

"They grazed in huge herds, spending short periods in certain areas and moving on – after fouling the feed with manure/urine or chased by predators," says Gary Wofford, who ranches in arid southeast Colorado. "They might not return for months or a year, allowing grass to utilize the fertilizer provided by their manure/urine, and to fully recover."

Holistic management educator Ian Mitchell-Innes defines mob grazing as moving animals around a pasture at high density to emulate that predator-prey relationship in which animals graze in tight groups and keep moving to protect the herd.

"As a result, only the plant tops were eaten, but that's where all the energy is. The rest of the plant was trodden onto the ground, where it served as litter, providing soil nutrients and protecting the soil from sun and erosion," he explains.

Kevin Fulton, who ranches in central Nebraska, rotationally grazed his cattle for 40 years before initiating intensive grazing nine years ago. He began by moving cattle daily, then multiple daily moves. He learned that when you rest pastures longer – dividing them into smaller paddocks and taking more time to get back to each small piece – forage production improves.

"The more paddocks, the more significant the positive changes will be," he says.

Chad Peterson, north central Nebraska, was an early adopter. Drought forced him to begin on a small, trial-and-error basis in 2001. "In my experimentation, I kept making paddocks smaller in order to extend recovery time for the plants. This produced fantastic results so I kept doing it."

In 2002, he met grazing guru Allan Savory. After reading Savory's how-to book, Peterson realized that what he'd been doing was called ultra-high stock density. In 2007, his ranch was part of a University of Nebraska grazing tour in which Savory was a presenter. During the tour, someone coined the term "mob grazing," Peterson says, and the name stuck.

 

[mytfarms]

I've been working extensively on research projects in one of my college classes, and I think you really need to more narrowly define what you're trying to figure out here. If you're talking what it takes acreage wise to run an animal unit for one year, you could be talking from a couple acres to over fifty or more depending on the area and grazing conditions. But if you're trying to figure out acreage wise if grass-finished beef or corn fed beef takes fewer acres, that's a pretty tall order. Grazing methods vary widely, and you of course have to figure the acrs it took to grow the grain to feed that feedlot calf.

 

[Jake]

I think the way you should look at is percentage based. How many more acres as a % does it take to raise that calf from embryo to finish? It would be more universally beneficial in comparing land usage than alot of the angles I've seen put to it.

 

[PATB]

I am working on a project for my agriculture class, and I need to determine the amount of land required for grazing, grass-fed cattle in the United States.

Does anyone have an estimate for the average amount of land required for cattle who are grass fed and grazed only (no supplemental feed)?

I have come across an estimate of 2.5 acres/cow, but I was not sure if this was accurate.

I would appreciate any answers or resources. Thanks.

The answer is that it depends It comes down to location of land, climate, grazing system, water availability and if it is cow/calf to finish or stocker cattle to finish.