Coping with Drought: Evaluating the Economics of Livestock Producers’ Options
Geoffrey A. Benson ( August, 2007 )
Summary
Coping with the consequences of drought is costly for livestock producers. This article focuses on beef cattle and other livestock that use pasture as the main source of feed. Options will vary from farm-to-farm but in each case one of these options is likely to be less expensive that the others. Options include buying various types of forages and feedstuffs, reducing animal numbers, or some combination. The discussion that follows is intended to show how different options can be evaluated, using information from the NCSU enterprise budgets as examples. These options include buying hay, using abandoned row crops or row crop residues, stockpiling, growing winter annuals, selling livestock, and selling the whole herd. The livestock examples used in this article are for beef cattle but these procedures can be used for other types of pasture-based livestock.
Details
| Organization | North Carolina A&T Cooperative Extension Program |
| Publisher | North Carolina State University |
| Publication Date | August, 2007 |
| Publication Views | 1389 |
| Material Type | Written Material |
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