cbe,
If it were me i would figure on 4 good acre's of pasture per head of cattle. 2 acre per head to graze them on and 2 to cut hay to feed them through the winter. 20 good acre's would be enough to graze about 10 head. But if you are going to keep them and feed them through the winter you will need another 20 acres fo hay.
Stepper, are you sure you want to put it in such definitive terms? You live in Arkansas and he lives in Texas, are you that certain that your conditions are comparable to his? What if there is a drought? Would 2 acres/cow be enough hay to get him through the summer, fall, winter, possibly next spring - depending on when it hit? What about hail or some other natural calamity that would affect pasture and the need for hay?
And by good pasture i mean pasture that is not half wood's and half grass. Pasture that produce's good wanted grass. Or has the potential by adding lime, fertlizer etc...., to get it producing grass.
Considering he lives in Texas, woods might be a good thing as they would provide shade for his cows, thus getting them out of the mid-afternoon sun and reduce stress caused by the heat. Just because there are woods doesn't mean it's bad pasture, just that it needs to be managed a little differently. Finding land that produces good, wanted grass tends to be a little difficult (and will probably command a premium price) because there are a lot of people out there that just don't know how to manage pasture, thus it becomes overgrazed and tends to produce a lot of weeds and not much grass. Not an ideal situation, but it has 'potential' and simply requires different management and a different game plan.
And i would take into consideration what it will cost to keep up the amount of land that you are thinking about buying. If you dont keep it up.( brush hogged, sprayed, fertlized, limed, etc....., ) It will stop producing good grass and start growing weed's, brush, etc ...., and wont be very productive to run live stock on.
We never, ever fertilized, limed, sprayed, or brush hogged our pastures when we were on the ranch. The types of grass indigenous to our area didn't need it. We do spray where we are now and spread manure, but nothing else. Once again, this is a regional thing that may or may not be required depending on the local conditions and requirements. I'm not saying it won't be, just that one cannot state it as fact unless one is knowledgeable about the conditions and requirements in that area.
In my opinion you have to be as good of a grass farmer as you are a cattle farmer to raise cow's. But now i dont own but 10 head of cow's and a few horse's myself. So you can take my advice for what ever it is worth.
