Guest commentary: Is there enough US land for range animal production?

There are people advocating and pushing us in animal agriculture to let agricultural animals have access to the outdoors converting from confinement to free-range operations.

Less corn will be available across the U.S. for feeding animals this year, so the use of wheat is expected to increase. (fredleonero | Bigstock.com)
Less corn will be available across the U.S. for feeding animals this year, so the use of wheat is expected to increase. (fredleonero | Bigstock.com)

There are people advocating and pushing us in animal agriculture to let agricultural animals have access to the outdoors converting from confinement to free-range operations.

In order to maintain the same or similar production levels, free-range operations would place an additional demand on the land utilization. This will impact the environment and the conflicts between urban and rural uses and zoning.

The problem is the individuals advocating for more free-range animal production systems have little appreciation for or no concept of the intricacies of agricultural production and how arable land in the United States is used. Moreover, they ignore that the bigger threat to production agriculture actually comes from urbanization, which takes 1,000,000 to 1,850,000 acres permanently out of production annually.

There is estimated to be 914,527,657 acres classified as farm land in the U.S. (Table 1). Of this acreage, approximately 389,700,000 has been classified as prime agricultural crop land with 315,000,000 harvested, 415,300,000 acres in permanent grazing land, 32,500,000 utilized for agricultural enterprises, and 6,539,000 acres tied up in farmsteads. This leaves approximately 50,450,026 acres that is not under current tillage and has potential as land to expand crop production or animal production.

Table 1: Estimated land dedicated to agricultural uses based on the US ag census

Use Acres
Total agricultural land 914,527,657
Timber 77,000,000
Permanent grazing land 415,300,000
Prime agricultural cropland 389,700,000
Prime cropland tillage 332,710,974
Other 32,500,000
Farmsteads 6,539,000
Balance available for expansion 50,450,026

Source: USDA NASS, 2012 Census of Agriculture

USDA NASS, 2016 Corp Acreage

Now we need to account for the crop production in the U.S., which accounts for the greatest use of arable land at 331,710,974 acres (Table 2). The information provided on commercial crops, including vegetable production, is from the 2016 USDA-NASS, Crop Acreage. Even though this is an extensive list, it is by no means all inclusive. This provides a general outlook as to the acreage committed to crop production in the U.S. Interestingly, of the land that was not accounted for in production, there were no acres accounting for small, minor crops indicating that there was virtually no tillable land left out of cultivation. This means that we have reached the upper limit of land availability for cultivation or animal production and increased production must be derived through increased yields (productivity) per acre.

Table 2: Estimated land for crops

Crop Acres
Corn 94,100,000
Soybeans 77,427,326
Alfalfa 56,773,256
Winter wheat 35,305,233
Spring wheat 12,412,791
Cotton 10,683,140
Corn silage 6,104,651
Orchard crops 5,087,209
Sorghum 6,918,605
Millet 445,000
Vegetables 4,781,977
Barley 2,970,000
Rye 1,760,000
Oats 3,030,000
Rice 2,848,837
Durham wheat 2,136,628
Sunflower seed 2,034,884
Peanuts 1,567,000
Tobacco 328,650
Sugar beets 1,145,400
Sweet potatoes 164,400
Potatoes 1,065,000
Sugarcane 887,000
Hops 43,987
Dried edible beans 1,690,000
Other oil grains 1,000,000
Total 332,710,974

Source: USDA NASS, 2016 Corp Acreage

Based upon the suggested pasture/paddock recommendations, the acreage needs for extensive production as advocated by groups in favor of pasture-reared products can be calculated if we were to totally revert to free-range systems. First, we need to do some calculations to determine what the estimated land use is for our current operations. This calculation includes estimates for land usage from the U.S. Ag Census and all of the Ag Animal Industry Groups. The land usage is the physical footprint of the animal facilities, for housing, feed lots, milking, egg processing, etc., but they do not include dairy processing or slaughter plants. Based on the estimates of facility footprints, there is a total of 32,500,000 acres used just to house and maintain the animals.

Table 3: Estimated land physical footprint of animal facilities and increases due to pasture and paddock requirements

Species Facilities(acres) Pasture/paddock(acres)
Laying hens and pullets2 124,449 1,020,000
Broilers2 1,410,418 4,500,000
Turkeys2 193,310 613,333
Swine2 139,194 6,839,500
Dairy3 15,431,637 18,534,000
Beef3 (includes feedlots) 12,569,317 163,636,364
Sheep3 1,908,213  
Goats3 723,462  
Total 32,500,000 195,143,197

1Estimate is based upon sq. ft. recommendations for confined facilities

2Estimates are based upon the recommended forage areas for grass based ruminant production and outdoor access paddock space for poultry and swine. These estimated areas do not include facilities acreage.

3This calculation does not take into account the range requirement differences between the Midwest and the West rangelands.

 

Table 4: Available, use and estimated acreage needs

Use Available (acres) Used (acres) Proposed need1 (acres) Balance (acres)
Prime agricultural cropland 389,000,000 332,710,974 31,506,833 24,782,193
Permanent grazing land 415,300,000 415,300,000 163,636,364 (163,636,364)
Total ag land use/need 804,300,000 748,010,974 195,143,197 (138,854,171)

1Proposed acreage needs for added facilities in cropland and grazing land.

If the animal production sector were to adopt the outdoor access standards recommended for the various domestic species, there would not be enough acres in the U.S. to meet those needs. Based on current calculations, the United States agricultural sector would see a deficit of 138,854,171 acres needed to meet outdoor access needs. They would have to decrease the flexible land availability based upon the location of many of the primary animal production systems by 31,506,833 acres. However, there will be an increased need for housing structures for the animals since stocking densities within the houses are also decreasing. This would take up additional land mass permanently removed from production because many of the current facilities are located within the tillable land area. This movement toward extensive, free-range animal production is not only unsustainable, but it represents an irresponsible use of our limited resources that are needed to feed a hungry and growing world population.

Sources:

Vesterby, M. and K. S. Krupa. 1997.Major Uses of Land in the United States, 1997. Resource Economics Division, Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture. Statistical Bulletin No. 973.

United Egg Producers

National Turkey Federation

Chicken Council

National Pork Board

National Cattleman’s Association

USDA Ag Statistics

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