Beef Cow Numbers, Crop Acreage, and Crop Policy

Land use shifts between cropland and pasture affect the demand for beef cow inventories because economically viable cow‐calf enterprises are pasture‐based. Econometric analysis indicates an inverse relationship of −36.6 thousand head of beef cows per million acre change in harvested cropland. Curtailment of the expansion phase of the current cattle cycle and subsequent declines in cow numbers is in part attributable to large acreages converted from pasture to cropland in the early 1980s. Conversely, crop policies which encouraged reconversion to pasture would stimulate rebuilding beef cow numbers and increase beef supply.