Abstract
Livestock and land management decisions made by ranchers in the Mountain West have current impacts on ranch profitability as well as long-run impacts on sustainability of the operation. As a result, it is critical for ranchers to understand the economic impacts of management decisions to choose strategies that minimize economic and operational risk. Here, we use a multi-period mathematical optimization model to estimate the economic outcomes of two summer grazing management practices- non-irrigated range land and irrigated pasture grazing, given cattle price projections over a 40-year planning horizon. The model is parameterized for 150- and 300- head operations, using enterprise budgets for Lemhi County, Idaho, and grazing and animal outcome data from the Nancy M. Cummings Research, Extension and Education Center. We also simulated 40-year price trends using historical cattle price data. We find that simulated operations that utilize summer grazing of range lands result in the highest overall profit, regardless of ranch size. We also find that the average annual returns for large ranches that only utilize irrigated pasture are negative. While the average annual returns for small ranches utilizing irrigated pasture are positive, the returns are significantly lower than ranches that use range lands for summer grazing. Our results indicate the economic significance of range land grazing and forage production for the profitability of ranch operations and their resilience to exogenous impacts on production.