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South Dakota Tops in Bison, Oats, Sunflowers… and Most Cattle Per Capita!

South Dakota, represent!

I learn all sorts of fun South Dakota facts from my Twitter friends. For instance, the USDA reported that in 2013, South Dakota was the nation's leading producer of bison, oats, and sunflowers. That list sounds so much more concrete, so much more vivid, than health, wealth, and beauty... let's update DeeCort Hammitt!

Hail, South Dakota,
A great state of the land!
Bison, oats, and sunflowers,
That's what makes her grand!

Then this evening, a friends shows me this map created by Seth Kadish showing USDA data on cattle per capita in the United States:

Map of cattle per capita, by Seth Kadish, based on USDA data
Map of cattle per capita, by Seth Kadish, based on USDA data

There are 87.7 million head of cattle in the United States. That's 0.28 cattle per American.

Nine states have more cattle than people, all adjacent on the Great Plains, plus Iowa. The highest cattle count per person is right here in South Dakota, with 4.32 hoofed mooers per person.

In other words, South Dakota has more bull per person than anywhere else in the country.

As you drive by those bovine pastures on your way to the 14-81 for a Jacks Burger, consider that each pound of beef your 4.32 cattle produce requires nearly 2,500 gallons of water to produce. Each dairy cow produces 120 pounds of wet manure per day. (Feel free to weigh your own production... or take the EPA's word that it takes 20 to 40 people to produce the same amount of poop.)

And still, with all those cattle around, Northern Beef Packers couldn't turn a profit. Go figure.

13 Comments

  1. grainofsalt 2014.06.09

    LOL, the most bull per person would logically = the most BS per person. Fortunately for South Dakotans, we castrate most of those BS producing bull calves and make them into steers (which gives us SS, which we use for fertilizer, a wonderfully useful product)

  2. Michael N 2014.06.09

    If the EPA has their way it will be much less. Lets give the land back to the prairie dogs, wolves & topeka shiners. $16/lb. hamburger & $10/lb pork, won't matter bc we'll all be on EBT's. Allah forbid anyone actually work in this country.

  3. larry kurtz 2014.06.09

    South Dakota: Land of Infinite Varicosities.

  4. grainofsalt 2014.06.09

    OK, OK, I just got it, we STILL have the most bull per person ... dang

  5. Frank James 2014.06.09

    This reminds me of the State Government's obsession with these NCAA style production numbers. Being number 1 in one of these areas doesn't make the producers anymore money.
    I really don't care if we are #1 or #30 as long as we aren't screwing up the environment and making a decent living off of what we produce.
    Focusing on being the #1 NCAA producer of commodities means we focus on the biggest style of production rather than the most profitable.

  6. Nick Nemec 2014.06.09

    And Frank hits the nail on the head. It doesn't matter one damn bit what our ranking is in the production of any particular commodity. As a farmer/rancher I want free markets and a fair price. I'll consider growing nearly any crop if I can make a profit from it. That includes hemp or poppies, if their growing is ever legalized in SD.

  7. Roger Cornelius 2014.06.09

    Speaking of poop, where's Steve Hickey been?

  8. Rorschach 2014.06.09

    Not only do we have more cattle per capita, we also squeeze the most out of each one in the form of lean finely textured beef - aka "pink slime." It may be offal, but dude it's beef.

  9. Nick Nemec 2014.06.09

    Rorschach, offal beef.

  10. Douglas Wiken 2014.06.09

    All those cows and all that manure protect grass land from the plow and they also fertilize naturally. The grass helps sequester carbon.

Comments are closed.