Economic Factors Affecting Sustainable Forage Production Systems for Beef Production in the Southern Great Plains.

The Southern Great Plains (SGP) region of the USA has a comparative economic advantage in growing and managing forages for beef cattle production. Three common categories of forage-based beef production systems in the SGP are (1) a cow-calf system that utilizes perennial native grass pastures, (2) a cow-calf system that utilizes introduced perennial pastures, and (3) a stocker cattle system that utilizes annually established winter cereal forages. In the first two systems weaned calves are supplied to the marketplace, and in the third system kilograms of beef are supplied. Producers typically choose production systems that best use their scarce resources (land, labor, management ability, and financial capital) along with their growing conditions (soil type, soil condition and precipitation) to maximize their expected farm or ranch profitability. However, several issues can and do impede the long-term sustainability of these beef production systems on many farms, including over-grazing perennial pastures, poor management of micro nutrients of perennial and annually established pastures, and intensive annual seedbed preparation and seed establishment techniques. There are some key economic factors that help explain why these issues are present in these systems.  First, periods of favorable cattle prices can lead to extreme, prolonged periods of overgrazing, causing severe and expensive long-term damage to perennial forages. Second, the marketplace does not recognize the value, in the short run, of certain ecosystem services (e.g., reductions in soil erosion, improvements in water infiltration) obtained from using improved, technologically advanced forage establishment and management practices (e.g., cover crops, no-tilling, precision fertilizer and pesticide application, etc.). Further, poor recordkeeping and financial management issues lead to poor credit issues with lenders, impeding producers from purchasing environmentally sustainable equipment. These factors help explain why producers have been slow to adoption environmentally friendly, economically sustainable practices and technologies into the beef cattle production systems common to the SGP.