Define stocking rate.

[callmefence]

Pretty broad term. To the old man it would mean how many cattle a place would carry with virtually no feed ,fertilizer or hay. At home right now I'm at about 1:5. I plant annual grasses, fertilize and buy in hay.
I have some leased places I stock at about 1:20 and forget about em .no inputs and rarely any hay.
I've got some hilltop that I really don't even count. The cows go through it but it has nothing much for em.
So were do you consider the true stocking rate of a piece of ground. I wouldn't think it could honestly include dumping out feed and moving cows every day. Should it be measured by what the land can carry with virtually no inputs??

 

[Brute 23]

Talking about stocking rates are kind of pointless. It's like a credit score, it doesn't tell you much. You need a lot more info to really under stand what your looking at.

I kind of laugh when people say the stocking rate for our area is... Really, what area is that consistent? Our soils change here drastically from pasture to pasture some times. You can say one property has a stocking rate of X and the property beside it may be half... or double.

There are tons of factors that go in to stocking rates. You would have to fill out 2 pages of questions to get any kind if grasp on why a place has a certain stocking rate.

 

[Banjo]

I tend to agree. Its all relative. some guys run almost 1:1 around during the summer but feed hay from the first freeze to May.

 

[bmoore87]

I wouldn't think it could honestly include dumping out feed and moving cows every day. Should it be measured by what the land can carry with virtually no inputs??

Only thing I would definetly not consider included is if you are supplementing cows with feed in the summer to get that rate the pasture isnt really holding that. But I guess someone could make the cases whats the difference in spending $2000 fertilizing this pasture to get more grass how is that very far off from going out and buying $2000 of grass hay bales.

Usually renting a pasture we lean toward it based on what the pasture can hold on its own since its how we usually run the pastures and thats the number of head we pay for. We do some improvements rotational grazing/ fertilizing on some of them if easy but I always thought that that is something extra that if we stopped it would go back to to true base stocking rate.

 

[ez14]

When i talk about stocking rate i mean what my pasture will do in the summer with 2.5 LB grain a head a day (the grain has their mineral in it thats why they get grain)

 

[True Grit Farms]

Your stocking rate is directly related to the time and money spent on the place. The less time and money equals less animals per acre. Bringing in hay adds to your stocking rate. We stock heavy and cull as we run out of grass.

 

[Supa Dexta]

When i talk about stocking rate i mean what my pasture will do in the summer with 2.5 LB grain a head a day (the grain has their mineral in it thats why they get grain)

That would actually be kind of a funny comment if it wasn't serious.

To compare I could say my cement lot holds over 100 head to the acre, with just the grass around the edges!
... But they get grain, cause you know - they need to eat. lol

 

[ez14]

When i talk about stocking rate i mean what my pasture will do in the summer with 2.5 LB grain a head a day (the grain has their mineral in it thats why they get grain)

That would actually be kind of a funny comment if it wasn't serious.

To compare I could say my cement lot holds over 100 head to the acre, with just the grass around the edges!
... But they get grain, cause you know - they need to eat. lol

I think my heifers would do just fine on my pasture with no grain but when i bought the grain it was to make sure they were big enough when i wanted to breed them then there was a mix up at the mill and they sent me way more grain then i wanted so they will get grain tell its gone then its just grass (and mineral but not with grain in it) and 2.5 LB of grain doesn`t seem like a enough to really affect stocking rate but i dont really know i guess i`ll find out next year

 

[dieselbeef]

if you can see the poop from the road its overstocked..if ya cant...its understocked

 

[Brute 23]

When i talk about stocking rate i mean what my pasture will do in the summer with 2.5 LB grain a head a day (the grain has their mineral in it thats why they get grain)

That would actually be kind of a funny comment if it wasn't serious.

To compare I could say my cement lot holds over 100 head to the acre, with just the grass around the edges!
... But they get grain, cause you know - they need to eat. lol

I think my heifers would do just fine on my pasture with no grain but when i bought the grain it was to make sure they were big enough when i wanted to breed them then there was a mix up at the mill and they sent me way more grain then i wanted so they will get grain tell its gone then its just grass (and mineral but not with grain in it) and 2.5 LB of grain doesn`t seem like a enough to really affect stocking rate but i dont really know i guess i`ll find out next year

You would be surprised what #2.5 of feed a day will do.

 

[Banjo]

if you can see the poop from the road its overstocked..if ya cant...its understocked

I like it!!! Keep it simple!!!

How can you tell when its just right? :???:

 

[dieselbeef]

its never just right.....theres always either a lot of grass or not enough

 

[Karin]

its never just right.....theres always either a lot of grass or not enough

Better the former than the latter IMHO.

 

[pdfangus]

I tell guys that they will know what their carrying capacity is about two or three years after they pass it.

the problem in our country is the extreme variability in the weather....we never have two years alike...this year we have had historical wet...grass everywhere is far too mature and when it stops raining everybody is trying to cut hay....a lot of it has gotten wet...

a lot of the local guys make and sell a lot of horse hay....

and most of the local cattlemen make hay all summer and feed hay all winter because they are overstocked and that is the way grandpa did it....

 

[Nesikep]

I have about 50 acres, and have 25 cows full time.. a little bit is in non-forage crops.. I consider my stocking rate to be 1 cow to 2 acres, and this allows for a little bit of hay sales, and also for reseeding, etc.. I could push the envelope and get to maybe 32 cows but I'd be doubling my work to do it.