How many acres for a pair

[ROAD WARRIOR]

Thought about this after reading another post. How many acres does it take to run a pair where you're at? In my little part of the world we can run a pair on about 3 to 31/2 acres. RW

 

[MYT Farms]

Year round? Oh, about 45 to 50. 60 acres in a dry year like this one.

 

[aj]

We usually figure 7-10 acres for a pair from say may 1 to Oct. I guess year round it would be more like 20 acres on the buffalo grass type stuff.

 

[GoWyo]

2.5 acres per pair per month in native upland pastures on a good year during the grazing season.  Depends on cow size too.

 

[yousesteers]

I figyre 1.5 to 2 acres per cow per year plus hay this year wet I got 9 cows on one11acre  pasture that have been out there since may and had 4 bales of hay this winter still grazing and started calving out there

 

[greenbean]

I'm in Iowa and they say around 1.5- 2 acres.  Had a class at Iowa State and they say with their grass mix and rotation they are down to a half an acre per cow calf pair.  I thought that was pretty cool. 

 

[Hoof Hearted]

Run about 45 pairs on 38 acres of irrigated pasture from March through October. Rotational grazing.

 

[braunvieh]

8-10 acres per unit for grazing season May 1 - Nov 1. We avg 20 inches rainfall a year.

 

[justintime]

Depends on the type of pasture in this area. I have one pasture that is 1000 acres. It is native pasture ( never been broke... ever). In an average year we put about 35 pairs on it.( 28 -30 acres per pair) The prairie wool grass is amazing stuff. it grows about 6 inches tall on a poor year and about 10-12 inches in a good year. It matures early and is brown by late July. That is when it really gets good. Cows and calves will come off it butter ball fat. We always try to never over graze native grass as once it is clipped short, it can take up to 5 years to come back to it's original capacity. 

Our tame grass/alfalfa pastures will carry a cow/ calf pair on approximately 6 -7 acres... over double that on rotational grazing pastures.

My grandfather used to say that every day you keep a cow off the pasture in the spring will mean two days of extra grazing in the fall. I firmly believe that is true... at least here. I would rather feed my cows an extra 2 or 3 weeks in the spring, that have to start to feed earlier in the fall. Of course a good drought messes everything up!

 

[beefy]

wow wish i had ground like everyone else. our winter allotment is figured by the blm and its 91 acres per cow per month.  we have great mountain ground where we run 400 pair on 8400 acres.    <cowboy>