Extension Education: What Does it Cost to Feed a Cow?

There are many costs associated with raising cattle, whether it is a single cow in the backyard or 200 on the back 40. 

Feed expenses tend to be some of the more significant costs associated with keeping a cow, but they can vary widely based on the method chosen to meet the cow’s requirements.

Practice problem

Let’s assume a producer can buy mid-grade hay to meet his cow’s requirements for $150 per ton. This makes every pound of hay worth 7.5 cents on an as-fed basis. 

Each cow eats an average of 33 pounds each day, contributing to a daily expense of $2.48. Across 365 days, this cow would cost the operation $905.20 per year. 

This rate only includes feed costs. It does not include any estimates for wasted feed, labor, equipment, vet expenses or opportunity costs.

Most operations do not feed their cows in a drylot for the entire year, primarily because it would incur a significant expense. 

Working from this level as a baseline, it’s important to acknowledge one might have to pay more if they fed a more expensive feed, but hopefully they can pay less by grazing owned or leased acres.

As a reference, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) reports can serve as a guide for establishing the value of owned or leased grazing land. 

In 2025, average grazing fees across Wyoming were $27 per animal unit month (AUM).

It is reasonable to ask the question, “What is the most I can afford to pay for a grazing lease before it would be cheaper to feed hay?” 

Assuming feeding hay is the most expensive option, it can be used as reference for the upper bound of possible values.  

To begin, divide the $905.20 per year by 12 months or 365 days. This establishes the daily grazing rate cannot exceed $75.43 per head per month or $2.48 per head per day. 

Leases are usually priced in one of three ways. The common ways to price land for grazing are dollars per acre, dollars per head or dollars per AUMs. 

To make an accurate comparison between different lease rate quotes, there is a little bit of math required. 

Price per acre

This value can vary widely because the productivity of a pasture can be higher or lower due to the environmental conditions and potential of the site. 

On a less-productive acre of land, the amount of grazeable forage might be around 100 pounds per acre. At this rate, a 1,200-pound cow or cow/calf pair equivalent to 1.2 AUMs would require about 10 acres to graze for one month. 

By dividing the maximum value of $75.43 by 10, one can establish a price ceiling of $7.54 per acre per month for this scenario. 

If the productivity of the forage were doubled to 200 pounds per acre and only five acres were required to keep a 1,200-pound cow for one month, the maximum a producer could pay would be $15.08 per acre per month.

Price per head

The baseline price to feed a cow hay is $2.48 per head per day or $75.43 per head per month. 

If a lease cannot be found at a rate lower than these values, then cattle should be fed hay or sold. If the lease cost exceeds the cost of hay, the lease can be accepted, but one must acknowledge it will be more expensive than feeding the cattle hay for the same amount of time.

There are other reasons to consider a more expensive lease, such as making tradeoffs between travel distance, labor availability and other non-financial benefits.

Price per AUM

Since this 1,200-pound cow will be equivalent to 1.2 AUMs, simply divide the maximum monthly rate by the number of AUMs per animal to determine the price per AUM. 

So, $75.43 divided by 1.2 AUMs equals $62.86 per AUM. This indicates feeding hay at $150 per ton costs more than double the 2025 average grazing rate for Wyoming quoted above.

Summary

It is important to pay attention to the price as well as the units of measure used with a lease rate. 

Based on a hay price of $150 per ton, the lease rates below represent upper thresholds for comparison. These values should represent trigger points where it becomes evident leased grazing is not more cost-effective than feeding hay.

These rates are $75.43 per head per month or $905.20 per head per year, $7.54 to $15.08 per acre per month or $90.48 to $180.96 per acre per year and $62.86 per AUM.

These rates are related to the costs of feed only. When including other costs like travel to check water, delivering hay to the herd or maintaining fences, it will change the economic feasibility of leasing or feeding. 

Comparing the cost of feed should only be the beginning of the analysis to determine if cattle should be fed hay, pastured elsewhere or sold to reduce carrying costs. 

There are tools available at uwyoextension.org/ranchtools/ to help determine carrying capacity of pastures and the value of forage.

Jedidiah Hewlett is the University of Wyoming agriculture and natural resources Extension educator serving Converse County. He can be reached in Douglas at 307-358-2417 or jhewlett@uwyo.edu.