Beef Cattle Production Potential of Set-Aside Land

Nearly 1,200 participants in the 1972 set-aside program planned to expand their beef cow herds by a fourth during the next 3 years. If permitted to fully utilize forage on the 58.8 million acres set aside, without reduced payments, they would increase their beef cow herds by 56 percent in the next 3 years. Based on the sample results, the national beef cow herd would increase over the next 3 years by an estimated 6.6 million head, or 16 percent if 1972 set-aside provisions prevailed. Another 4.3 million beef cows would be added within 3 years if full utilization of 58.8 million acres of set-aside land were permitted without a reduction in set-aside payments. Only in the South and the Com Belt-Lake States could cattlemen profitably accept reductions exceeding 10 percent from 1972 set-aside payments in exchange for year-round forage utilization, unless feeder calf prices exceeded $45 per hundredweight. Twenty dollars per ton for hay would compensate for reductions of 10 to 20 percent in set-aside payments in the Corn Belt-Lake States, and the eastern fringe of the Northern Plains.