"Reason I single out dairy and beef is simply that the ruminant needs forage, and forage is not economical to haul in."

Have you been to any of the 5,000+ cow dairies.  They are run extremely efficiently, sometimes in the middle of a desert.  A lot of corn silage can be grown within 5 or 10 miles of these farms to more than fulfill their forage needs.  With ethanol byproducts, I can drylot cows cheaper than I can graze them if they are grazing tillable land.  Sure it requires different management, but both the small hog and dairy guys said the big boys could never raise those hogs and cows like they are doing now.  Just got to adjust your management structure.  Right now beef cattle are used to utilize ground that otherwise could not be used for production of any other commodity.  That gets the calf on the ground and kicking, then somebody has to take that calf and give him better feed to reach his potential.  The poor ground is about the only thing beef cows have going for them, and from what I hear the guys grazing public land out west, it becomes a bigger and bigger headache each year.