3 ms·

Why don't struggling dairy farmers convert to beef production? Seems to me it would be much less labour intensive and more profitable. Obviously if every strugg

Why don't struggling dairy farmers convert to beef production? Seems to me it would be much less labour intensive and more profitable. Obviously if every struggling dairy farmer converted to beef it would drive prices down. I think people are eating less dairy in general than in past times. I am not lactose intolerant but I don't think I have had milk or ice cream for at least a year. I do eat cheese and yogurt so maybe that (more than?) counterbalances my lack of milk consumption. With regard to the manure issue there are various ways to handle it. Some modern barns are set up with trenches running along the stalls, the stalls can be periodically washed into the trenches, and the trenches drain into a giant holding tank. Manure can be used as a nitrogen source for fields fertilisation or it can be anaerobically digested for methane which can be used as a source of energy.

urthor 6y ago
Because beef uses feedlots with grain as well, and have the same manure lakes. The beef industry has figured out that cattle fatten up far faster on grain, so they leave the cattle out for I think it's 12 months to basically grow to their "adult" size, then put them on grain for a few months to fatten up. They have it precisely timed, because the cattle basically die on the all grain no silage diets they get, or would if they don't get sent to the abattoir literally a fortnight before.
dbg31415 6y ago
> Why don't struggling dairy farmers convert to beef production? Seems to me it would be much less labor intensive and more profitable. Love these comments. Clearly someone who has never been on a dairy farm vs. a cattle ranch. =P So for dairy, you normally have smaller pastures (less land) and keep your cows fed hay and expensive foods to help keep them producing high quality milk. For beef production, you'd normally have large pastures for cattle to graze on grass. More land, more naturally occurring (cheaper), but lower caloric-dense food. Big call out... there are different kinds of cows for milk and beef. Holstein's make milk, Angus make hamburgers. There's a huge list of types of cattle... each have their own pros and cons for beef vs. dairy production. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cattle_breeds https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cattle_breeds To support the "more land" approach, you have horses to move the cattle around between pastures. You also need equipment to put up hay for the winter (buying hay is expensive). You can go the feedlot route, but that's more the "finishing school" for beef production. Not a lot of margins at small scale. Dangerous to keep too many cows together too, from a disease perspective. As a rancher, since you've got a tractor anyway for hay production, and ample land, you may want to plant a few fields of corn, wheat, millet... anything to sort of help cover costs of all the expensive equipment and cost of land. And you're not bound to a rigid daily care schedule for the cattle. Ranchers have spurts of work... more cows, living outdoors, so harder calving seasons... more work for branding and such, more time fixing fence for bigger pastures. Put ranchers and dairy farmers in a room... they're different people. They may look similar, but they're just wired differently. You invest a small fortune in the milking facilities, if you run a dairy operation. You invest in land if you're a ranch. They're not like "oh, let's just flip a switch and it's converted." Anyway I'd write more but just because you have cows, doesn't mean it's at all interchangeable.

urthor 6y ago

Because beef uses feedlots with grain as well, and have the same manure lakes. The beef industry has figured out that cattle fatten up far faster on grain, so they leave the cattle out for I think it's 12 months to basically grow to their "adult" size, then put them on grain for a few months to fatten up. They have it precisely timed, because the cattle basically die on the all grain no silage diets they get, or would if they don't get sent to the abattoir literally a fortnight before.

dbg31415 6y ago

> Why don't struggling dairy farmers convert to beef production? Seems to me it would be much less labor intensive and more profitable. Love these comments. Clearly someone who has never been on a dairy farm vs. a cattle ranch. =P So for dairy, you normally have smaller pastures (less land) and keep your cows fed hay and expensive foods to help keep them producing high quality milk. For beef production, you'd normally have large pastures for cattle to graze on grass. More land, more naturally occurring (cheaper), but lower caloric-dense food. Big call out... there are different kinds of cows for milk and beef. Holstein's make milk, Angus make hamburgers. There's a huge list of types of cattle... each have their own pros and cons for beef vs. dairy production. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cattle_breeds https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cattle_breeds To support the "more land" approach, you have horses to move the cattle around between pastures. You also need equipment to put up hay for the winter (buying hay is expensive). You can go the feedlot route, but that's more the "finishing school" for beef production. Not a lot of margins at small scale. Dangerous to keep too many cows together too, from a disease perspective. As a rancher, since you've got a tractor anyway for hay production, and ample land, you may want to plant a few fields of corn, wheat, millet... anything to sort of help cover costs of all the expensive equipment and cost of land. And you're not bound to a rigid daily care schedule for the cattle. Ranchers have spurts of work... more cows, living outdoors, so harder calving seasons... more work for branding and such, more time fixing fence for bigger pastures. Put ranchers and dairy farmers in a room... they're different people. They may look similar, but they're just wired differently. You invest a small fortune in the milking facilities, if you run a dairy operation. You invest in land if you're a ranch. They're not like "oh, let's just flip a switch and it's converted." Anyway I'd write more but just because you have cows, doesn't mean it's at all interchangeable.