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Number of Cows

Uhm.. that varies so much from area to area that it is impossible to give a definative answer. Some places it is 20-30-40 acres a cow.. Other places it would be a whole lot different. We have 600 acres in pasture and can run 400 cows on it if we want to hope for an average year of weather and that would be on what would be refered to around here as poor or marginal ground.. (Not suitable for row crop production or a bit sandy for row crops).

There is some ground on this place that is farmed that is rated at 11 AUM per acre... Would love to have seen this area back in 1850.
 
I try to run one cow per two acres. I could probably go one on one and a half but I don't like to run out of grass if it comes a dry spell. It has been extremely dry here this year and most folks are feeding a little hay, but I haven't had to start yet. We are finally starting to get a little rain so maybe things will green up a little now. Clay in TN
 
FH, Sounds like the one Ranch we found for sale in Nevada.. It was monsteous in size but only ran something like 200 cows.. .. The old cows per section instead of acres per cow.
 
I saw some places in NM that it took 100 acres per cow..................................................................................................................................if the packed a sack lunch every day.
 
I saw some places in NM that it took 100 acres per cow..................................................................................................................................if the packed a sack lunch every day.
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Passin' Thru- I was on a ranch that ran 1000 cows on 300,000 ac. They guy told me that they needed every acre some years. They never fed hay or grain unless they had an unusually snowy winter. Mostly the cows ate winterfat sage and they told me it was over 20% protein. The cattle I saw looked good. I liked the country real well too. Lots of cedar, and sage. Beefmaster cows worked well there as they would cover lots of miles in a days time.
 
On 2500 of pasture and crop, we graze 200 head, and could grow their winter feed. We're just on the tip of the iceberg though for what we could graze. Our pastures are very productive, but aren't cross-fenced enough YET, to really push the bar.
 
No FH, not on our ranch for sure, but there may be some up your direction, in this county. I sure wish we did. We have silver sage, and maybe some Wyoming big sage, and the little stuff we call wart sage.
 
I wonder if winterfat and sweet sage are the same thing?

I read that it's a decreaser, so I imagine anyplace that had hard grazing, it would get crowded out. I think we may have a little.

We have silver sage and sage wort of several kinds. Seems like rotational intensive grazing, can cut all the sages back a little and I know the sheep will weed out about any kind of woody plant around here, pretty hard.

I'd run some sheep, just to clean up some pastures, if it wasn't such a cost and pain to fence for them. Wish I could get me a cheap sheep herder. :)
 
Sageandsteer.jpg
 
We use sheep on this place to clean up the weeds the cows won't touch... They personally drive me nuts but they actually bring in good money as we direct market the lambs into Chicago for a nice premium over the auciton sales... Cheaper to run the sheep along the fence line to clean up the crud than srap 2-4D all over the place.. If they would only eat more of the ditch weed however (Industrial hemp).
 
The picture i added is from our ranch. Maybe someone can tell me what kind of sage it is. I think it is Silver Sage.

I better get to work. Sorting calves.
 
Faster horses said:
How hard have you tried? :wink:
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Welllll, maybe not hard enough.

I made a deal with a young feller that if he would buy and put in the couple extra strands of wire, I wouldn't charge him nothin' for runnin' the sheep for a couple years. He didn't think it would work for him or else he couldn't get the money.

I don't even know where you'd get any herders anymore.

And I can't seem to talk any of the kids into doin' it. :cry:

Tap, that looks like what we call silver sage, but maybe a little taller. They tell me, anywhere sage is growing, will grow good grass, if you can get rid of the sage.
 

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