Determining the economic importance of intensively managed irrigated pastures in various small to moderately sized livestock production operations in Utah.

摘要

The objectives of this study were: (1) Develop accurate enterprise budgets for dairy, beef, horses, and sheep under two feeding alternatives: traditional feeding versus rotating intensively managed, irrigated pasture; and (2) Demonstrate the application of a programming model to minimize annual feed costs associated with both traditional feeding and alternative intensively managed, irrigated pasture strategies.;Our results showed that for the cow/calf operation decreased annual feed cost per pair from ;This study demonstrated the ability to reduce annual feed costs by utilizing intensively managed irrigated pasture instead of feeding using the same acreage to raise (and feed) harvested feedstuffs. A switch to intensively managed irrigated pasture requires a change in labor responsibilities.