Cost of raising cattle in New Hampshire

New Hampshire sits in USDA hardiness zones 3b through 6a, giving cow-calf operators one of the shortest grazing seasons in the continental United States. UNH Cooperative Extension guidance for Granite State beef producers assumes roughly 5.5 to 6 months on pasture and 6 to 7 months on stored hay, which is the single largest driver of per-head cost relative to Plains states.

According to the USDA 2022 Census of Agriculture, New Hampshire had approximately 3,300 beef cows on roughly 220 farms, with an average herd size near 15 head — far below the 200 to 2,000 head range of commercial cow-calf operations in the Midwest. Angus and Hereford are the dominant breeds, with Belted Galloway and Red Angus common on smaller rocky-hill farms where their foraging efficiency and cold tolerance matter.

Feed is the dominant line item. USDA NASS Agricultural Prices reported Northeast all-hay averaging roughly $250 to $290 per ton in 2023 to 2024, and a dry beef cow consumes about 2.5 tons of hay across a 200-day confinement winter, yielding roughly $625 to $725 in winter feed alone before mineral and creep supplementation.

Pasture lease rates in New Hampshire are thin because most beef producers graze owned land; UNH Extension and USDA NASS cash rent surveys place informal pasture rents in the $20 to $40 per acre range, and at a stocking rate near 2 acres per cow-calf pair this translates to roughly $150 per head per year in imputed pasture cost. Labor, veterinary care, and miscellaneous inputs track closely with the USDA ERS Cow-Calf Costs and Returns series for the Northeast region.