Cold

I was hunkering, waiting for Sarpy Sam's response to that one.

Beef industry economics are tough if you are on the commodity side. A 1978 Montana study found that for an average of $6,000 (1978 dollars) of spendable family income (money that could be spent on the family - new car, college tuition, groceries) per year over a 25 year period, a commercial cow-calf ranch had to have at least 300 calving cows. The $6,000 1978 dollars are equivalent to $17,844 2005 dollars. The cow herd size required to provide this amount of family income now is likely larger, given the divergence between beef prices and both producer costs and consumer prices.

A 2006 study by the University of Minnesota <a href="http://www.cffm.umn.edu/">Center for Farm Financial Management</a> found that for a farm family size of 3.4 persons the average annual family expense was $64,046 and, based on five year average returns, a beef herd size of from 815 to 1,357 cows, depending on the area of the state, was required to generate that amount of family income. (<a href="http://www.cffm.umn.edu/Pubs/earnlvgfarm.pdf">pdf</a>)

The next thing you need to know is the number of acres required per AUM (essentially the number of acres per cow-month) in the area you are looking at. I'm guessing its somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 to 4 acres per AUM for that neck of the woods. Then look at the cost of land in your area of interest. The lowest is probably somewhere around $200 to $300 per acre without mineral rights.

Another source of economic info are the Extension ranch enterprise budgets, like these here: <a href="http://www.ag.uidaho.edu/aers/r_livestock.htm">Idaho
Livestock Costs and Returns Estimates as Enterprise Budget Bulletins</a>