Table 4.

Effect of stocking rate (hectares per steer) of growing steers grazing mixed-grass native prairie pastures^a from 1990 to 1996 at the Marvin Klemme Range Research Station near Bessie, Oklahoma on economics^b of the stocker cattle enterprise with and without a land rental cost^c

	Stocking rate, hectare/steer									Polynomial Contrasts
Item	1.83	1.91	2.29	2.76	3.04	3.61	4.13	SE	P-value	Linear	Quadratic	Cubic
With Land Cost
Net return, $/steerd	95	91	79	71	76	73	52	11.8	< 0.01	< 0.01	0.69	0.1
Net return, $/had	52	47	35	26	24	22	13	5.2	< 0.01	< 0.01	0.08	0.54
Without Land Cost
Net return, $/steerd	144	143	142	146	158	171	164	11.8	< 0.01	< 0.01	0.19	0.05
Net return, $/had	79	74	62	53	52	49	40	5.2	< 0.01	< 0.01	0.07	0.51

^aSteers grazed from April 25 to September 16, 1990 (144 d); April 26 to September 30, 1991 (157 d); April 15 to September 27, 1992 (165 d); April 15 to September 28, 1993 (166 d); April 4 to September 7, 1994 (154 d); April 12 to October 3, 1995 (174 d); and April 3 to September 24, 1996 (174 d).

^bBased on the 10-yr average prices for Oklahoma livestock markets from 2009 to 2018 with purchase of 205 kg steers in March and sales of 340 kg steers in October (USDA, 2020) and the inputs used during the experiment.

^cAnnual land cost was set at $ (USD) 27.17/ha, based on rental rates published by the USDA NASS (2015).

^dU.S. dollars.