What is your stocking rate?

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Very interesting article. Thanks for the post.

Two items jump out at me. One is:

" A 1,500-pound cow needs 50 per cent more forage per day than a 1,000-pound cow"

which implies a 1500 lb cow needs 25% more than a more realistic (imho) 1200 lb cow, Or a 1900 lb cow needs approximately 58% more than a 1200 lb cow, both lactating and producing essentially identical 205 day calves.

The other is the typical academic discussion of how many "tons of forage" are in an acre.

Personally I am not real good at understanding or estimating tons per acre when I look at some grass in a pasture.

I can tell the difference between 10" tall grass and 4" tall grass. And I am starting to be able to correlate the grass I see with the number of days a number of cows can be on it and take 10" grass down to 4". I think cow-days is a much more understandable and calculateable/useful measure of grass than tons.

But useful info. Thanks. Jim
 
From what I am hearing the latest research states that a 1200 lb. cow might be the most efficient and profitable. Jim, have you seen those pasture sticks that the USDA, NRCS gives out to estimate forage DM?
 
hayray":oaset8u0 said:
From what I am hearing the latest research states that a 1200 lb. cow might be the most efficient and profitable. Jim, have you seen those pasture sticks that the USDA, NRCS gives out to estimate forage DM?
They are handy as a pocket on a shirt but really only give you a more scientific WAG.
 

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