How Many Acres Per Cow Do You Need?

This time of year, especially after you have shifted from grazing to fed feed such as hay or baleage, you might start wondering why you have the number of livestock you have. Life is short, and some animals just need to grow some wheels. It’s probably a good thing to question the number of grazing livestock you have, especially when you are feeding them stored and/or bought feed. I said it recently, but I’ll quote the late Gearld Fry again: "If you cull the ten percent you should be culling, the herd that's left is just that much better." I was at a meeting recently and was asked a familiar question about how many acres you need to have per cow. That is a question that can’t be answered quickly, at least not accurately. What does the question on “acres per cow” have to do with winter feeding? It’s important if you care about cow cost and inputs. Winter feed costs usually make up the majority of annual maintenance expenses of keeping a cow. If you have enough forage available, you have potential to graze more days and the more grazing time you have for the cows, or whatever grazing livestock you have, the less fed feed you will need. Let's Break This Down There are several variables to this “acres per cow” question. Let’s first look at the dry matter requirements of a cow for a year. To keep the math easy and to