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[highyields]

Has anyone in the lower 48 seen any new pasture planted in the last 5 years?    I'm getting kinda tired of reading this "cattle herd is expanding"  I'd just like to point out that maybe since we have had recored cow slaughter that heifters needed to be kept back just to MAINTAIN the current cow herd.   I seriesly doubt we are in expansion phase.  I wish that we would, it would keep the foreign beef out. 

[djsinseia]

Row crop ground being converted into pasture?  No.

But I will say that I bought a farm last spring that was in CRP.  I bought out the contract and am farming most of it but there is 35 acres of the farm that will be pasture - at least as soon as I can get fence built around it!

However, I also lost 20 acres of good pasture at the same time because the landlord (my uncle) just didn't want the hassle of having livestock around the farm anymore.  Ground is going to soybeans this year and will then become a hayfield.

So it is really kind of a wash.

But I will also say I have never seen so many green fields right now in our area!  Green because they had a rye cover crop seeded last fall.  Most of them will be baled or chopped for forage and then put into soybeans.

So maybe the cow numbers can expand without a huge expansion in pasture acres?