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Comment by kurthr | Hacker News Reader

Frankly, the same is true in Northern California. I see lots of cows out to pasture at all times of year. I'm sure there must be somewhere in the country where it's cheaper to feed grain (or too cold to go outside?), but even with the crazy land prices out here it's cheaper to feed them grass. It's the same price as everything else:

https://cloversonoma.com/

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There are plenty of large concentrated feed lot dairy operations in Northern California as well. Take a look over here, for example, there are several: https://www.google.com/maps/place/36°44'03.7"N+120°14'28.2"W (switch to Satellite view)

Yep, that's Fres(hell)no, the very definition of Central California. Welcome to COVIDlandia! Not much water unless you got rights 100 years ago either. At least they don't grow as much rice in that part of the desert.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_California

In NorCal there would be more demand for “better” cow products from local grass-fed cows/steers, even if more expensive, right? Some of those West Marin cows have a heck of a nice ocean view while they graze.

This has been going on for a long time. I imagine it’s simply because you can’t really grow crops on the hills but you can use them as pasture.

I believe it is always cheaper to feed cows grass. The grain is more expensive, but fattens the cow up and produces better marbling, and most would say better taste. That is why it is done.

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