Feed Consumption & Costs

摘要

Total summer and winter feed costs typically account for 60-65% of the total economic costs of operating a beef cow herd. Therefore, accurate feed disappearance (consumption plus wastage) attributed to the beef cow herd is important. Annual feed costsare made up of summer pasture costs and winter feeding costs. Let's look at each individually. Figure 1 presents the pasture input data used in an Integrated Resource Management Financial and Reproductive Management System (IRM-FARMS) cost-and-return analysis (CRA). Pastures can consist of public lands and rented and deeded land. Regarding public lands, I collect just the total annual dollar lease payments made for public lands. Rented-pasture costs consist of acres rented and the local rental rate per acre. If the renting rancher has to pay associated costs such as fencing, water development costs, etc., those costs are listed in the right-hand column reported on a peracre basis.