[bryanlarsen]

If you're feeding beef irrigated feed, that's crazy.

But normally beef are fed crops that are highly drought resistant, like grass, alfalfa and barley.

Human crops like wheat, rice and corn require a lot more water than feed crops.

So if your rainfall levels are less than what is required by human food crops, you have several options:

- irrigate - grow cattle feed without irrigation - idle the land

The 3rd option may be the most environmentally friendly, but it doesn't feed anybody.

Beef may require more water per calorie than other foods, but it may still be more efficient. It doesn't really matter how much water is required -- it matters how much irrigation is required. And for beef, that number can be "0" in areas where nothing else is.

[meeks]

This link states that beef are normally fed corn:

http://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/crops/corn/background.aspx

Also, cows can drink up to 30 gallons of water per day:

https://beef.unl.edu/amountwatercowsdrink

I don't know how we could consider it to be more efficient than simply eating other foods (i.e. plants) under any circumstance when all variables are considered.

[bryanlarsen]

Beef in the States are normally fed corn, yes. And that's silly, yes.

Corn is heavily subsidized in the States, and also needs to be rationalized.

Under any circumstance? Please tell me what would be a more rational way of feeding people in Montana? Cows can graze on native prairie and have an ecological impact similar to the buffalo that predated them. Ripping up the native prairie to grow wheat or corn would destroy the soil and turn it into a desert in about 20 years.