In a dairy farm, how many hectares of land is ideal per cow (for grazing)?
114669
Go to usda.gov and look for the book "prescribed grazing and feeding management for lactating dairy cows" We pay lots of taxes for goverment agencies who somtimes have the right answers. The information is free, and if you are on a farm or learning about farming, the US Department of Agriculture is there to help you.
275476
Get to Australia and submit some job applications. Otherwise you'll probably be sitting around trying to figure out how to milk a kangaroo, which BTW, works better with cows, and they do have cows in Australia last I heard.
746723
Minimum of 90m or 100 yards and a maximum of 120m or 130 yards.\nThese of course can be changed to age appropriate sized fields.
809994
Such an interesting question but unfortunately I am not aware of any research into that sort of thing. I have worked with Jersey cows (my favourites) Ayershires and Frisians but never with Guernseys . Maybe you should organise a race?
529653
One of the problems with this comparison is that cows and chickens can eat things that humans cannot.  So the cows on a cattle ranch can be raised on native grasses on open range, which could not be utilized by humans in that form.  \n\nIn addition to the cattle, other organisms such as prairie dogs, badgers, burrowing owls, black-footed ferrets, prairie chicken, swift fox and all variety of insects that evolved over millions of years to live alongside the bison herds that once covered the North American prairie can survive on the open rangeland.  The cattle can take the ecological niche that was once inhabited by the bison.\n\nFor cereal crops, this open rangeland is plowed under and converted to monoculture fields that are inimical to the native plants and animals.  Pesticides and irrigation are required to grow these crops, pulling water from irreplaceable groundwater sources, rather than renewable rivers and lakes that can be used in livestock production.\n\nThe monoculture crop fields are highly susceptible to insect pests, as there are no predatory insects that can survive in the crop fields, and the monoculture makes outbreaks of pest species much larger and more numerous than they would normally be.  This requires the use of pesticides to keep the crops usable, as well as vast quantities of fertilizers to replenish the soils leached of nutrients by year after year of all the nutritive value being taken from the field and sent off to make bread and twinkies.\n\nSo ecologically, meat production is much better for the environment than cereal crops.  Eating a cow may mean the death of one cow, but eating vegetarian kills the entire prairie ecosystem, which is the most endangered ecosystem on the planet (less than 1% of original native grassland still exists in the world).\n\nSo eat a steak for the planet!!
640243
How Plants Grow\nUnderstanding can help you improve your pasture management. \n\nBy Dave Forgey, Logansport, Ind., forgraze@carlnet.org \n\nOne of the questions I'm frequently asked by people beginning grazing is, ''How short should I graze my pasture?" Following are some excerpts from a publication called "Hay and Pasture Management" from USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service that help me explain the answer: \n\n"A problem that livestock producers face is knowing how short they can graze or mow the pastures and still obtain maximum productivity during an extended period. The problem is compounded by varying climate conditions, growth habits of different plants and livestock preferences for different plants. Plant growth also is affected by the time of the year and age of the plant when leaves are removed. \n\n"Minerals from the soil make up about 5 percent of the solid material in plant roots, stems and leaves. Carbon, hydrogen and oxygen from the air and water make up most of the other 95 percent. \n\n"The leaves take in carbon dioxide from the air through tiny pores. Using solar energy, the leaves recombine the carbon with oxygen and hydrogen to make sugars and starches. The sugars then combine with minerals from the soils to make fibers, proteins, plant oils and fats. The plants use the sugars, starches, proteins, oils and fats to grow and reproduce.\n\n"The ability of perennial grasses and legumes to recover quickly after grazing and mowing makes these plants extremely valuable for forage production and soil protection. Removing too many leaves retards forage production and damages the plant's root system. Plants eventually die if overharvest of the leaves continues. \n\n"Root growth is closely related to forage production. Plants maintain their maximum root vigor and growth when no more than half their leaves are removed by grazing or mowing during the growing season. If the plant's food producing mechanism is deprived, leaf and root growth are reduced accordingly. \n\n"In all grasses, the volume of leaf removed has a direct effect on the growth of new roots. Roots are the vital supply lines of moisture and minerals to the leaves. Perennial plants store food in the roots after seasonal growth. They use these reserves to live while dormant, to make the first new growth the next spring, and to start new growth after green leaves and stems are closely grazed at any time during the growing season.\n\n"A grass plant produces twice the volume of leaves it need to complete its growth and remain productive. Generally when up to 50 percent of the plant is grazed, root growth continues unimpaired. When 60 to 90 percent of the plant is removed, 50 to 100 percent of the root growth is stopped. \n\n"All plants have growing points where new cells are developed. The growing points of grass are located just above the last complete joints of each stem. Early in the season, the growing points are situated at the base of the plant. As the season progresses, the joints of most species elongate and push upward to produce a seed stalk. At this time, the growing point is elevated and in a vulnerable position. Removal of this point by grazing or mowing forces the plant to send up new leaves from the base plant and to start over as if it were spring. This causes additional drain on root reserves and can weaken the plant." \n\nThis is why I tell graziers that you can graze close in the spring but you must leave more leaf surface as the season progresses so that the plant continues to build a strong root system. The better the root system the better the plant can take both heat and moisture stress.\n\nPlants also recover much faster if a large amount of leaf surface remains to start the regrowth cycle. Since the uppermost part of the leaves are the most nutritious for the livestock, it just makes sense to graze the best and leave the rest to speed recovery. I hop
494215
If by "tillable" you mean "arable": i.e., land that can be used for growing crops, then about 12 million square miles (31,000,000 km²). That's about 21% of the planet's land area.
986675
well, cows give milk in liters not litters....
572191
not really a farm, it would be about 5.9 acres.\n\nacre (ac or A) \na unit of area used for measuring real estate in English-speaking countries. "Acre," an Old English word meaning a field, is derived from the Latin ager and Greek agros, also meaning a field. The acre was originally defined as the area that could be plowed in a day by a yoke of oxen. It was in use in England at least as early as the eighth century, and by the end of the ninth century it was generally understood to be the area of a field one furlong (40 rods or 10 chains) long by 4 rods (or 1 chain) wide. Thus an acre is 10 square chains, 160 square rods, 43 560 square feet or 4840 square yards. There are exactly 640 acres in a square mile. In metric countries the unit corresponding to the acre is the hectare, which is 10,000 square meters (the area of a square 100 meters on each side). One acre is equal to 0.404 687 3 hectare. Among traditional European land area units, the acre is typical in being defined as a day's work but unusual in not being visualized as the area of a square. Similar units include the French journal, north German and Dutch morgen, south German and Swiss juchart, Austrian joch, and Czech jitro.
812972
it depends on how many deer would be attracted to it, what food source you are using in the plot. Most food plots are at least 20 acres but the best thing for you to do would be contact Biologic and ask a rep there @ http://www.mossyoakbiologic.com/home.asp?section=home\nor contact your local DNR or fish and game division and ask them
382410
4 stomachs\n\n\nRumen\nFirst stomach. The cow swallows grass half chewed. It is stored here where it is softened by the cow's stomach juices. \n\nReticulum\nSecond stomach. Grass is softened further and forms small wads called cuds. Each cud returns to the mouth where it is chewed 40 to 60 times and swallowed again. \n\nOmasum\nThird stomach. Chewed cud is pressed and broken down further. \n\nAbomasum\nFourth stomach. More like a human stomach, here the cow's stomach juices finally digest the broken-down cud and pass it through to the intestines. Nutrients then cruise through the blood to where they are needed.
408231
get a cow and find out
636827
My uncle had the same problem with wolves and coyotes and whatnot screwing with his cows, he invest in electric fencing around the area where the cattle were kept. Around the field he set up Wire fencing with lines every 8 1/2 inches or so up to 5 feet tall. He says it works very well and keeps the cattle from trying to knock over the pre-existing fences which were just wooden posts and regular wire fencing. So it's a good investment to protect the cattle, or in your case horses, and it all serves as a good boundary line. Also i have heard of people installing motion sensor lights, to scare away the animals, around different areas of the field perimeter, not very costly as you can just put up a wooden post and run a light from the top. You can use car batteries to power them. Sounds like a good idea, but i don't know of anyone personally that has ever done it, and I'm not sure about the car battery thing. Shouldn't be too hard to find a power source if you really wanted to. in the long run it would be nice anyway. The power line thing may be a little expensive, but as much as horses cost it would be worth it, depending on the size of your pen or field or whatever you keep them in. You could just lock them in a pen at night and do the wires around that. Good luck, hope this helped!!!!
1179666
The USDA website has a lot of great data that lists the cattle numbers according to the Agricultural census. Every farmer/rancher should know how many cattle they have! You can't manage what you don't measure! Ask the the ranches that make the most profit per animal.
890547
Here is one article.\nhttp://www.albany.edu/jmmh/vol1no1/dairy1.html \nhere is a Yahoo search\nhttp://search.yahoo.com/search?ei=utf-8&fr=slv8-sbc&p=Iowa%20Farmers%20Union%20and%20Farm%20Holiday%20Movement\nHope it helps. Good Luck.
485829
ok, so 1 hectare = 2.47105381 acres\nand 1 Acre = 4047 square meters\nYou better check out this link it's useful and helpful http://www.towersurveys.co.uk/Amendments140304/Convertme.htm
295914
We have no idea- The definition of "optimum" would be optimum for who?  For the rest of life, excluding chickens, pigs, and dogs, a human population of zero would be fine.  If we had 10 billion, then 10 billion and one would be great for that last one born.  If you are asking what is the maximum *sustainable* population, that unfortunately can only be answered when you pass it and discover that you are now past the max.  H G Wells estimated that when we got over 2 billion, there would be mass starvation.  Other later said for sure anything past 5 billion would cause mass starvation.  We are now near 7 billion and have a huge overall food surplus (of course, thats just food, not addressing energy, clean water, etc).  We may be able to sacrifice wetlands, tropical forests, etc, and get even more food, though its doubtful if the ecosystem could handle it for long.