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Beef Cow Numbers, Crop Acreage, and Crop Policy
Author(s) -
Bobst Barry W.,
Davis Joe T.
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
american journal of agricultural economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.949
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1467-8276
pISSN - 0002-9092
DOI - 10.2307/1242187
Subject(s) - pasture , acre , crop , beef cattle , cow calf , agroforestry , agricultural science , agronomy , environmental science , agricultural economics , biology , zoology , economics , herd
Land use shifts between cropland and pasture affect the demand for beef cow inventories because economically viable cow‐calf enterprises are pasture‐based. Econometric analysis indicates an inverse relationship of −36.6 thousand head of beef cows per million acre change in harvested cropland. Curtailment of the expansion phase of the current cattle cycle and subsequent declines in cow numbers is in part attributable to large acreages converted from pasture to cropland in the early 1980s. Conversely, crop policies which encouraged reconversion to pasture would stimulate rebuilding beef cow numbers and increase beef supply.