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Napanee, Ontario | "Does beef need to be considerably more expensive"
"Does the future of beef look more like the pig and poultry operations? If you could hit the switch and they are all fed, and everything is in a climate controlled building, does it become appealing to more folks?"
Hey Alberta, pretty much the questions on my mind as well. I think the answers to these questions go hand in hand. Historically, there has simply just been not enough return in cattle to have these facilities. Not when there was plenty of cheap available land you do do it for a fraction of the cost on.
I think the nature of keeping pig and poultry is pre-disposed to using buildings and facilities, regardless of land costs. But for cattle, we are reaching a crossroads on the future of feeding from 'grazing' the land. Look At Tmrand's post from below we can see that there are limits to put up cattle, due to weather and climate changes. At the same time, areas that can sustain grazing reliably year in/year out are under pressure from row crop competition. The lower ROI on cattle loses out, supply drops and the price goes up. We are seeing this happen.
Well eventually, that price gets high enough where there is enough return to put them up in facilities vs pay these high pasture rates, or opportunity costs of keeping good ground in pasture. I think I have already seen a few posters over on stock talk bring up the discussion about dry-lotting cows. | |
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Cow-Calf vs Row Crop Profit
