A number of factors go into determining what the stocking rate should be on a given cattle operation. According to Dr. Tom Troxel, associate head-animal science for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, the number one factor is what kind of livestock you’re going to graze – stockers versus cows, or what types of cows. “Also, how productive those cattle are,” Troxel told Ozarks Farm & Neighbor. “If they’re 1,100-pound cows with average milking ability, you can graze more of those on any given piece of land than you can graze 1,400-pound cows with superior milking ability, because those two cows require different amounts of dry matter intake.”
Another thing that affects how many cattle can be put on a piece of land is how much forage that land can produce. “Is it a native forage?” Troxel asked. “Is it a deep soil pasture? How well can it retain moisture? Is it a pasture that is conducive to fertilizer, or is it a rough pasture where you can’t fertilize it at all? Can you implement modern production practices to improve the condition of the pasture, or is it mostly a native range kind of country where you can’t do much of that at all?”
A third issue is the ability to install a rotational grazing system on the land; this would allow for a higher stocking rate.
Troxel cautioned that grazing the land at the maximum stocking rate can put the farm at risk. “If there’s any change in the weather like a delay of rain, the grass growth will impact you more quickly,” he said. Under those circumstances a producer may be forced to immediately sell off some stock, whereas if the land is more conservatively stocked the producer’s herd can graze its way through a short dry period.
Overstocked acreage is one of the biggest problems for Missouri cattle producers, according to Eldon Cole, southwest region livestock specialist for University of Missouri Extension. “There is the cash flow thought, that you’ve got to get more numbers out there and get more cash coming in.,” Cole told OFN. “There’s also that mystique about, ‘Boy, it would be nice to have 100 cows.’ Maybe your land is only accommodating to 75 or 80; yet, you feel just a little more ‘in the cattle business’ and feel like you’re doing something smart if you do have that magical number.”
Still, many producers reduced their herds over the last couple of years – due both to the drought, and to attractive prices for culled cows and bulls – and Cole said it’s brought many of them down to a more realistic stocking rate. “Now, I think we can make some cautious increases in our livestock numbers and not hurt the forage that we have out there,” he said. “I think that the good managers are in a position now to put into practice some things,” like management intensive grazing.
But Cole said ranchers who are not as strong on management ability need to avoid returning to an overstocked position, and should watch their cows. “We don’t want these cows to start being too thin,” he said. “We don’t want the bulls to get thin and, if you’ve got young cattle that you’re growing in a stocker program, you’d like for them to be gaining an acceptable amount of weight.” Periodic weighing of animals can help keep track of whether something is inhibiting their performance; the producer also needs to have an idea of how many pastures the cattle will be run on. He said, “If we don’t have at least five or six pastures to rotate cattle among, you’re probably not going to see quite the grazing acceptance that you might otherwise.”
