bullman315
Member
I was wondering if anyone could give me an estimate of how many cows per acre you can have there. I know there is no exact answer but I just want a general figure. How many on dryland and irrigated land. Any help is appreciated.
Texas Panhandle
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Running Arrow Bill
Well-known member
That's the "$64,000 Question"! Varies widely. Even from one town to another, one ranch to another, one mile to another. Some of "pasture" land around here has a "trace" of native grass, filled with cacti, yucca, russian thistle, and mesquite. Another ranch one or more miles away has average grazing.
In general, according to some locals, a "good native pasture" might have 1 AU per 15-20 acres, if no supplemental feeding is used (producing marginal animals). Another "quality pasture" (by Texas Panhandle standards) might be 1 AU per 2-5 acres. The CRP land in our region, can't by law, be grazed unless a State exemption for severe drought is proclaimed.
Now...on our 22 acres, we are running 42 head of Longhorns (about 29 AU's at present) and 8 horses (6.8 AU's). We feed hay 24/7/365 (However with our good April and May rains this year our hay consumption is down aboaut 70-80%)...Summer hasn't started yet...lol. Last year we fed over 200 round bales of bermuda, 5x6's. We also do a small amount of small pen irrigation to keep our native bermuda alive and trying to grow in the summer.
The Texas Panhandle region ranges from good pasture to completely sorry pasture that was overgrazed years ago and still hasn't (and probably won't) recover due to all weeds. That 1,000,000 acres or so that burned a while back is starting to recover with some native grass and probably weeds, but is still long ways from supporting very many cattle. Some ranchers sow winter wheat for winter and spring grazing, then bale what is not eaten down in the spring. Others plant soghram for grazing and hay baling.
I've seen some sorry ranch pasture in our area that probably couldn't support ONE cow to good condition with 50 acres!
In general, according to some locals, a "good native pasture" might have 1 AU per 15-20 acres, if no supplemental feeding is used (producing marginal animals). Another "quality pasture" (by Texas Panhandle standards) might be 1 AU per 2-5 acres. The CRP land in our region, can't by law, be grazed unless a State exemption for severe drought is proclaimed.
Now...on our 22 acres, we are running 42 head of Longhorns (about 29 AU's at present) and 8 horses (6.8 AU's). We feed hay 24/7/365 (However with our good April and May rains this year our hay consumption is down aboaut 70-80%)...Summer hasn't started yet...lol. Last year we fed over 200 round bales of bermuda, 5x6's. We also do a small amount of small pen irrigation to keep our native bermuda alive and trying to grow in the summer.
The Texas Panhandle region ranges from good pasture to completely sorry pasture that was overgrazed years ago and still hasn't (and probably won't) recover due to all weeds. That 1,000,000 acres or so that burned a while back is starting to recover with some native grass and probably weeds, but is still long ways from supporting very many cattle. Some ranchers sow winter wheat for winter and spring grazing, then bale what is not eaten down in the spring. Others plant soghram for grazing and hay baling.
I've seen some sorry ranch pasture in our area that probably couldn't support ONE cow to good condition with 50 acres!
