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[clhw AT InfoAve.Net (clhw)]

Here in the Southeast, where pine forests are many and annual
precipitation, mostly rain, is about 50 inches, our carrying capacity, as
stated by the Clemson Extension Service, the FDA, and the Soil and Water
Conservation folks (whatever their name is now) is 3.5 animal units to the
acre.

When we looked into buying land in Montana, around Lake Flathead,
specifically in the Poulson area, we were told that the annual rainfall was
12 inches and the carrying capacity was 3 acres to the animal unit.

In other words, we needed almost 10 times the land we have here to carry
the same number of animals. So regional/climate differences can be
enormous.

>Last night I looked online and found that any ranch property can be
>investigated by a potential buyer for its "carrying capacity" expressed
>in acres per animal unit (ac. / a. u.).  In fact, why bother with
>realtors when you can type the word "ac." AND the phrase "a. u." into
>Google and have instant access to thousands of ads for ranch properties?
>
>It's possible that all these people are liars, like the government
>researchers who prepared the Coos County Soil Survey.  If not, then
>maybe Lynda can just save us all some time and tell us what her carrying
>capacity for nonirrigated grazing is, or the average for the countless
>other ranches she's familiar with, and we can all compare it to what we
>have at our own places.  I would think that now that she's a great land
>baroness, she would know how to describe her land in terms that ranchers
>use.  Lies take many paragraphs of anecdotes, but the truth just takes
>just one little floating-point quantity to reveal.
>
>Bill