What do you think, which are the 10 states with most cattle per acre? Is Texas your first pick, with their wide plains? Well, it’s true that Texas is the state which has the most cattle in the US (12,500,000 to be more precise). However, the Lone Star State is nowhere near top ten when it comes to cattle per acre by state criterion!
While some parts of the world are researching the cow methane effect on the ozone layer, no one in America seems pretty upset about it. At least, that’s what we can conclude based on the figures. You’ll see there are millions of cows on our list, and for some more impressive data, go to 10 Largest Cattle Producing States in the US. After all, the US is a land of McDonald’s and hamburgers, isn’t it? If you were to ask anyone in the world to tell you a typical American dish, most of them would first think of a good old hamburger, not an apple pie. Italians have pasta, Germans pride with sausages, and Americans can boast about their excellent hamburgers. Naturally, a proper hamburger is made of beef, and we all know where that meat comes from.
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Not that Americans shy away from consuming other types of meat, despite the latest craze for vegan diets. Just take a look at these 10 states that produce the most pork in America. In addition to that, chicken is very much consumed, too. What state has the most chickens? The answer is Georgia. Over 1,300,000 of them, actually. Interestingly, when discussing cattle production, there is a set opinion that the largest cattle producing state is Florida. With some 1,630,000 cows, Florida cattle is on the 12th place on the states with the most cattle. Its position in the list with beef cattle numbers by the state is a bit better, but not too much, in case you are wondering where does Florida ranks in beef cattle production.
Even though we’ve been discussing meat so far, our research is based on the total number of cattle. Some cows are intended for milk production, and the answer to what state has the most dairy cows is California. The state which didn’t make it to our list as well. But it’s the first if you were to ask which is the largest peach producing state.
Now would be a good time to explain where we gathered the data, and how we used it. The method was very straightforward. We simply divided the total acres by the number of cattle. It has to be mentioned that the acres didn’t involve water areas. The information about acres per state was found at Farmland Information Center and State Master. As for the statistics of cattle, we used the Beef2Live‘s ranking. We used the source for most cattle per capita ranking, too. To make our list more interesting for our readers, we displayed the numbers representing cattle population.
As we have explained earlier, there’s no Texas or Florida here, regardless of the rumors. So, which are the 10 states with most cattle per acre? Let’s find out!
10. Virginia
Cattle population: 1,480,000
Believe it or not, but Virginia is at the bottom of the list of the cow producing states (33rd place). However, the acre and cattle ratio is pretty high.
Pixabay/Public Domain
9. Tennessee
Cattle population: 1,830,000
Compared to Virginia, Tennessee is close enough to the cattle population figure both per acre and per state.
Pixabay/Public Domain
8. South Dakota
Cattle population: 4,000,000
Which state has the most cows per capita? This one! Sounds incredible, but South Dakota has four times more cows than people.
Pixabay/ Public Domain
7. Kentucky
Cattle population: 2,160,000
Kentucky fried chicken or KFC is the first association to this state, but the state is also a huge cattle producer, too.
Pixabay/Public Domain
6. Missouri
Cattle population: 4,450,000
Missouri’s cattle population is double that of Kentucky! If you wish to lose those extra calories after a hamburger, apply for MO Cowbell Marathon.
Pixabay/ Public Domain
5. Wisconsin
Cattle population: 3,500,000
Obviously, if a state is called “America’Dairyland”, it’s perfectly natural for it to find its place on our list of 10 states with most cattle per acre.
Pixabay / Public Domain
4. Iowa
Cattle population: 4,000,000
Iowa and South Dakota have the same number of cattle, but Iowa’s a bit smaller and therefore ranked higher.
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3. Oklahoma
Cattle population: 5,100,000
Oklahoma’s cattle represents 5.4 % of the total cattle population in the whole US.
Pixabay/ Public Domain
2. Kansas
Cattle population: 6,300,000
Dorothy probably used to milk a lot of cows before she was swept away by that tornado. Here’s Kansas winning silver in our list.
Pixabay/ Public Domain
1. Nebraska
Cattle population: 6,800,000
What state has the most cattle in our list of 10 states with most cattle per acre? The answer is Nebraska. Of course, it’s nowhere near the cattle giant Texas, but it has the highest density of cattle per acre in the US. Also, Nebraska is in second place when discussing what state has the most cattle per capita.
Pixabay/ Public Domain
This wraps it up for our list of states with most cattle per acre.
