Beef Cow-Calf production in the U.S. - The USDA Economic Research Service (ERS) has released a report which states " beef cow-calf production in the United States occurs in every state with about 35% of the 2.2 million farms having a beef cow inventory, in 2007. Most of these were small, part-time operations with about a third of farms that raise beef animal having a beef cow inventory of less than 10 cows, mor than half had fewer than 20 cows, and nearly 80% had fewer than 50 cows.
Many small operations are 'rural residence farms' that specialize in beef cow-calf production with their income from off-farm sources exeeds that from the farm.
Beef cattle production is considered by consumers to be the 2nd largest "factory farming" species/industry. Doesn't sound like there are many of those types of farms and ranches out there.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Industrial Beef Producers?
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Yup, we just need to keep pushing this to those who claim it is all "factory farms", but then again, they will say, "Well, if most beef comes from these small farms, why do we need the larger ones running on public land?" and use it as an excuse to shut down more public lands grazing, I am afraid.
ReplyDeleteNot necessarily. There are small permits also being used. We really need to hit hard on the benefits of public land grazing and the ability to turn thousands of acres that would not otherwise be used to produce a wholesome protein source.
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