Project Number: 1902-11130-001-02
Project Type: Specific Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Sep 30, 2005
End Date: Sep 29, 2009

Objective:
The objective of this cooperative research project is to develop protocol of options and approaches that reduce the risk and optimize the economic return in transitioning from a traditional crop-based confinement dairy farm to a grass-based grazing dairy farm.

Approach:
This research will begin by surveying and characterizing dairy farms throughout the Northeast that are implementing various levels of grazing management. These farm collaborators will primarily be drawn from those involved with the Northeast Pasture Research and Extension Consortium. The survey will provide the basis for farm characterization before, during, and after transition. In particular, major steps in the transition process will be identified. ARS expertise will extend existing biophysical farm models that will be used to simulate and refine these steps as production systems on a representative farm. The survey data and simulations will also develop information on the optimal scale and enterprise configuration, variability in production efficiency and environmental impact as weather conditions vary across years. Other economic tools will be identified and used to determine the economic risk at each step. By combining these procedures, a series of steps in farm transition will be identified that allow the producer to maintain an acceptable or optimal level of profitability each year over an acceptable or minimum number of years in transition. This protocol will be documented and made available to producers through presentations to the Northeast Pasture Research and Extension Consortium and other grazing conferences across the region. The results will also be made available through the Grazing Guide web site maintained by the Consortium.