Most of my life, the acres of pastureland has done one thing, decrease. Only when I was really young did my grandfather plant things to grass. Now, he planted brome but in 1990 that was what we knew. The more diverse pastures were alfalfa stands that the brome moved into, so rather than crop them, they became pastures. My dad had a different mindset, one which I have seen in person or from the road ever since my grandpa seeded those marginal fields to grass. “Cows can’t make what corn can.” I don’t know if that’s the exact quote, but my dad would mumble something like that any time my brother or I would get on him about breaking up a pasture or only keeping the small herd he had. I don’t think he minded having cows, maybe he just didn’t enjoy them as much as grandpa. In my time though grandpa wasn’t the one on the horses sorting pairs either so I suppose that can be more enjoyable.
That mindset of crops over cattle is obviously very prevalent, not just in my father. Those pastures my grandfather planted or let nature plant, were turned back to crop just as countless acres on most farms in our area have been. I’m not counting CRP as we only started having the ability to graze those fields recently and I still believe most of you are not taking advantage of that. Not to mention our traditional CRP acres continue to drop, but I’ll get into that coming up some other week. The mantra or belief in crop profit being greater than cow profit has always baffled me. Somewhere in the 90s I remember sub-$2 corn; I don’t think we will be that low in this crop cycle but with the cost of inputs does it need to get that low to be just as unprofitable?
I believe there is a general assumption that (maybe with crop insurance) crops always are more profitable than if those acres were grass with cows on them. As with any assumption there may be some truths but almost certainly some traps as well. There is ground that the assumption will hold true and some that it doesn’t hold water. Crop insurance doesn’t reward low yielding (especially zero yield) ground. By having those acres in your field it drags the yield down; how can we assume that this is a good thing?
I really never considered that I would live to see the possibility of this mindset changing. I mean, all my effort through work is obviously geared to increasing grass acres but changing the farm-first attitude I didn’t think was achievable.
Until enter stage left, today’s cattle market. I’m not saying it’s an avalanche — probably more like a glacier — but through the farm shows I have been witness to, the wheels are turning in producers minds that grass just might be more profitable than crops. It was a pleasant surprise for me this summer. Even before the last couple years, cattle were profitable but now we are being smacked across the face with it.
Of course, we can be cynical and say well what if that market tanks? Well, what if crop markets tank? We are taught that like in grass plantings diversity is more successful than one species, diversifying your business helps you to be more resilient. If there is a downturn in one thing then the other areas of your business should compensate. Cattle and other livestock convert roughage to something we can sell. Marginal grounds aren’t profitable under any crop prices, so there is a greater likelihood that livestock will still provide a better return on marginal acres than crop.
There is still the possibility that even on the “good” ground, livestock can be more profitable than crop. Don’t want to put down perennial grass to get into, or get deeper into cattle? Well, there are plenty of forage crops that you could use as a way to take advantage of the cattle market in the short term. Not to mention, if you were to add a third crop of small grains to the rotation you have the opportunity to follow that with forages in order to take advantage of the current cattle climate. You will have a hard time convincing me now that this scenario of taking the cash small grain price plus the forage value will not compete with corn or soybean profits.
I really encourage you to look at the numbers, do yourself justice and do some honest analysis. The final stage of planning is evaluation, and we all do a poor job of it, no matter our station in life. I don’t just mean evaluate if we put the proper amount of fertilizer on or the upcoming hybrid and variety numbers for next years crop. We should be evaluating if our land use is the right one, and if there is a more profitable one we aren’t considering.