blowsand - 8/21/2026 12:03

Im both a beef producer and a row crop farmer. Both have big barriers to expansion. The biggest problem with the cowherd is spot on with what other posters have said. Corn/bean insurance and helicopter money prevents it from being economically feasible to take ground out of row crops to grow pasture or feed.

I got lucky oats got a trump bucks payment, because the sorghum sudan behind it didnt.

Not saying take away the insurance saftey net for row crops, but dont penalize the cattleman via base acre changes for rotating pastures and feed. Or give the cattle producers a system like ARC with an olympic price for calves, so we know that if the market tanks were not just out our investment in pasture establishment in a year. I don’t want more subsidies, but the playing field at least needs to be leveled if the row crop subsidies remain.

At least in my area, row crops and cattle compliment each other very well, even just eliminating lots of the insurance games that make it financially possible to farm the dry sand and wet bottoms would open a lot of feed/pasture opprotunities. And crp should only be used for actual conservation purposes, not just blanket whole farm stuff.

Bottom line, Cattle expansion could add to the bottom line of a lot of operations, but there needs to be a lot of things changed to make it happen. Young people need to see a future with a semi stable cash flow. Middle aged guys (like myself) need to be able to make investments without worrying were hamstringing our children, and older guys need the security of a semi stable income working with a younger producer instead of just cashing out and renting everrything they can to a crop farmer.

This can be fixed, But it’s going to take work. And as long as the NCBA and packers keep hamstringing policy, it wont happen.