Of the total land area of the contiguous 48 states, ~45% is used for animal ag. This includes:
Land for grazing livestock at ~35%.
Land for crops going specifically to animal feed at ~9%.
Animal ag farmsteads at <1%.[1-3]
That doesn't follow. The chart is counting the number of acres of land which are used for specific purposes, not the number of cattle being raised on that land. And the category you're counting as "pasture" encompasses rangeland as well, which is used at an extremely low density (often as low as 1 head of cattle per 10 acres).
https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2024/december/ers-data-...
and
https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/crops/corn-and-other-feed-gr...
Let me surface a more direct article: https://insideanimalag.org/land-use-for-animal-ag/#:~:text=1...
Of the total land area of the contiguous 48 states, ~45% is used for animal ag. This includes: Land for grazing livestock at ~35%. Land for crops going specifically to animal feed at ~9%. Animal ag farmsteads at <1%.[1-3]