American Ranchers Raise Millions Of Animals IN THE DESERT This Way - Farming Documentary

Hello my friends, today we are going to the deserts and arid regions of the western United States to see how farming and ranching work here. In the United States, arid lands and deserts are mainly found in states such as Nevada, eastern California, western Utah, Idaho and Oregon. In recent years, the temperature difference between day and night in desert areas in the United States has always been quite high. In particular, in the Great Basin Desert in Nevada, temperatures can drop from 87 degrees F during the day to 13 degrees F at night. It is estimated that by 2021, about 799 million acres of land in the United States that are considered deserts, accounting for 33% of the country's area. Of course, this statistic includes both arid and semi-arid regions. Currently, there are about 289,300 active farms in the western states of the United States. In which, about 37% of these farms are located in arid and semi-arid lands. Due to the extremes of the climate, crop farming in the arid regions of the United States is not as productive as ranching and livestock. Common crops grown in arid regions include alfalfa, potatoes or wheat. The first place we will visit in this video is the state of Arizona, where up to 63% of the land is desert, arid and semi-arid regions. These two farmers are establishing up a pasture to raise poultry right in the desert. This is a small ranch located in the town of Wittmann, about 35 miles northwest of Phoenix, Arizona. At this desert farm, about 30 adult turkeys are being raised for meat. In addition, they are also considered close friends for this farmer couple. Every morning, dozens of turkeys will leave the coop and roam freely around the farm. Of course, their range is also limited by the fence system, which helps prevent the turkeys from moving too far away from the farm. In addition to turkeys, pigs are also animals raised on this 6-acre farm. The number of pigs raised in the barn at this farm is always maintained at 15 to 20 heads. Every day, the pigs here will be fed twice in the morning and late afternoon with mainly corn. In addition, the leaves are also used to enrich the diet of this herd. Due to living in harsh conditions and often being free to run around, the quality of pork at these farms is always much higher than that of pigs raised on the factory farm. Not only pigs and turkeys, these ranchers also make their farm more diverse with animals such as ducks, chickens and geese. After about 6 weeks from being established, this small desert grassland is ready to welcome the chickens to live and feed. Of course, with a fairly modest area, the number of chickens raised at this farm is not much. According to USDA statistics by 2022, about 57% of the total 20,300 farms in Arizona are located in desert, arid, and semi-arid lands. The agricultural industry in Arizona generates about $4.1 billion in revenue each year, and its impact on the state's economy is about $23.3 billion. Next, we will travel to the arid regions of the Mojave Desert in southeastern California and parts of Nevada to see how the thousands of sheep here are raised. Unlike the thousands of sheep raised in California's central valley region, these desert-raised sheep roam all day long across barren lands in search of scarce food. In fact, the amount of food that sheep consume is much less than that of livestock, so they are considered livestock more suitable for desert and arid lands. Cattle are often raised in semi-arid areas, where the climate is less extreme and natural food sources are more abundant. On average, a sheep can travel about 2.3 miles per day in search of food. With a flock of about 100 sheep, ranchers need a minimum of 31 acres of pasture to rotate grazing. Even in areas with harsh climatic conditions and low amounts of natural grass, ranchers need about 50 acres of pasture to feed 100 sheep. According to USDA statistics by 2021, in the United States, there are about 84,300 sheep farms in operation and about 71% of sheep farms are located in western states. In particular, California is the state with the largest number of sheep farms in the western states with 423 farms. Each year, sheep farms in the western United States generate $931 million in revenue from sheep sales. This revenue does not include the revenue from wool, milk and other products of millions of sheep. When talking about livestock farms in the arid west, we cannot ignore horse farms with a scale of tens to hundreds of animals in Montana, Oregon or California. In particular, with more than 42,000 wild horses living, another state in the western United States, Nevada, is home to the wildest horses in the country. The number of wild horses living in Nevada today accounts for 51% of the country's wild horses. Wild horses living in arid and semi-arid regions often compete directly with livestock for food. This is also the main reason why they are considered a problem for US agriculture. The most common animal that roams the arid lands of the western United States are cattle. According to the National Agricultural Statistics Service. As of January 2023, the number of cattle raised on farms in the western United States was approximately 27.3 million heads, representing 29% of the national cattle and calves population. Different from goat or sheep farms. Livestock ranchers in arid regions need more land for each of their livestock. Specifically, a herd of cattle and calves of about 100 will need at least 180 acres of land to rotate grazing. Even the area of land for grazing will be larger if the climate in that area is too harsh and there is little natural grass. In general, farming and livestock farming in the arid regions of the western United States is fraught with difficulties in terms of water availability, forages, and heat stress in animals.