Roofs For Cows

By: Victoria G. Myers

Some Midwestern corn and soybean producers may want to get into the cattle business, but with land still averaging more than $8,000 an acre, it’s impossible to pencil in a profit using traditional methods. Jeff Morse, Council Bluffs, Iowa, did that math a few years back, and he couldn’t make it work.

“We were looking for a way to bring my sons, Jared and Joshua, into the operation,” he said. “We initially were thinking we wanted to expand our feeder operation, but we got caught with some heifers when the market went down, so we decided to expand with a cow/calf operation. Land price was the element that made adding pasture acres a cost-prohibitive move.”

Morse was looking at buying pasture for 64 cows — a herd size that would have required around 160 acres. The purchase price for that much ground in 2011 around Pottawattamie County was a shocking $1.5 million. And Morse points out that in Iowa, those 160 acres would only have supported the cattle for part of the year.

“Providing you get ample rain and you fertilize well, you are only going to feed them from May through August [on pasture]. Maybe, if you’re really creative, you get five months off those pastures. The rest of the year, you are going to have to feed hay, cornstalks or something,” he said.