Profiles in Conservation

Grazing for Dollars: The Grass (and the profits) May Be Greener on the Other Side of the Fence, Pennsylvania Farm Demonstrates

The Cove Mountain demonstration dairy is located in Franklin County, south central Pennsylvania.

It’s not a top-secret, high-tech military project. And it’s not the name of an old movie starring Haley Mills...

Cove Mountain is actually the name of a demonstration dairy farm managed by Glenn Moyer in Franklin County, south central Pennsylvania. The purpose of the dairy farm project is to gauge the economic and environmental merits of an alternative “grazing” approach to dairying. The farm is owned by the American Farmland Trust.

The results from that project could prompt you to consider moving your operation to greener pastures, or at least using those pastures more effectively.

In short, the alternative approach calls for grazing dairy cows on intensively managed grass and legume pastures instead of confining the animals indoors and feeding them hay, grain, or cut forage.

A skilled dairy grazier, Moyer made the switch from confined feeding to grazing when he took over the Cove Mountain farm in the early 80’s. His goal was to show that a grass-based dairy system was not only possible, but more profitable.

For most producers, grazing dairy cows on intensively managed grass and legume pastures requires a change in operations and a change of mindset.

A different way of dairying
Jana Malot, a grazing specialist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in Fulton County, Pennsylvania, said Moyer’s efforts underscore the fact that there are many different ways to dairy.

“There are as many ways to dairy as there are vitamins out there,” she said. “Many of the farms are similar and achieve results that are close to the same, but people are all different, cows are different, and the land is different,” she said.

But making the switch to a grass-based dairy will likely require a change in operations, change in management, and a change in mindset, Malot said. “Not being able to physically see or measure the quantity of feed that cows are getting in bales or scoops can be an adjustment,” she said. “Operators have to learn to quantify feed amounts by inches and sward densities.”

In addition, Malot said, producers might need to make physical changes in their operations to allow for proper pasture grazing management.

Conservation assistance sets the stage
To help Moyer reach his goals, the NRCS provided conservation technical and financial assistance to develop a watering system (including a spring development), an effluent irrigation system, and a stream crossing – all of which were central to Moyer’s grass-based approach.

To address certain animal husbandry issues, Malot said the Nutrient Balancing Program (NUTBAL) was also used on the farm to help check on pasture and animal diet quality. NRCS also helped Moyer diversify the forage crops available to his herd by planting a mix of different grass seeds – primarily perennial Ryegrass and white clover – in various pastures.

Cost-share funding for some of the work, including pasture seeding, was provided through the USDA’s Environmental Quality Incentives Program, Malot said.

Happy and healthy? Grazing systems appear to help increase the overall useful life span of dairy cattle from a national average of four years to seven-plus years.

Boosting the bottom line
According to several estimates, grazing-based systems on small to medium-sized dairies can boost net income by $50 to $100 per cow. Computer simulations on the Agricultural Research Service’s (ARS) Dairy Forage System Model generally bear this out, say agricultural engineer C. Alan Rotz and animal scientist Kathy J. Soder, who are at the ARS Pasture Systems and Watershed Management Research Laboratory (PSWMRL) in University Park, Pennsylvania.

Preliminary analyses with the model have shown that this low-input approach at Cove Mountain may increase net income up to twice this amount.

Cows in full-confinement operations generally produce higher milk yields than those that graze, but the benefit of grazing comes from lower production costs and less labor.

For those who try it, according to Bryan T. Petrucci of American Farmland Trust, the secret to success isn’t hiking milk production, but rather decreasing operating costs associated with growing, harvesting, and storing crops like corn as year-round feed – a standard practice for full-confinement operations. There’s also less capital investment than is associated with managing and housing large dairy herds.

A positive impact on the environment
Without a corn crop to worry about – unless grown for winter feed – a grazier doesn’t have to spray chemical pesticides. This cuts the risk of drift beyond the field and spares beneficial insects like bees. In addition, erosion is minimized, because the pasture’s plants keep soil firmly anchored.

And by keeping herds out on pasture, rather than indoors, less fuel and labor are spent spreading manure and harvesting feed, reducing offensive odors and cutting the grazier’s expenses.

Case studies show results
In a March 2002 paper titled Seasonal Dairy Grazing: A Viable Alternative for the 21st Century, Jonathan Winsten of the Henry A. Wallace Center for Agricultural and Environmental Policy at Winrock International, and Bryan T. Petrucci of American Farmland Trust studied six successful dairy farms using seasonal calving and management-intensive grazing. Their report contains detailed information describing six farms that successfully use the system.

The case studies show that there are many different approaches to seasonal, grass-based dairy farming. Some important elements that contribute to the financial success of these farms are increased labor efficiency, low feed costs, low veterinary expenses and low culling rates. All but one of the operations analyzed in this study were able to ship more than 750,000 pounds of milk per full-time worker equivalent.

For many of the farms, the use of a fast, high-throughput milking parlor plays a pivotal role in achieving this efficiency. Forage costs are minimized in these operations by virtue of matching herd requirements to nutrient production from pasture.

The report also points out that while all six farms have below average grain costs per hundredweight of milk produced, some are more successful than others at keeping this cost to a minimum. The report also sites significant savings from dramatically reduced veterinary costs.

“Producers are reporting improvement in the health of their cows,” said NRCS’ Malot. “They have fewer hoof and leg problems, fewer respiratory problems, and they are less prone to twisted stomachs due to spending less time on concrete and more time in the pasture.”

“Grazing systems appear to help increase the overall useful life span of dairy cattle from a national average of four years to seven-plus years,” Malot said.

Winsten and Petrucci’s report supports that assertion. “Also significant, but less obvious, is the increase in profitability for each farm due to very low annual culling rates of 10 percent to 12 percent, compared to an industry average of 30 to 35 percent,” the report states.

Winsten and Petrucci point out that seasonal dairy grazing requires keen observations of pasture forage growth and effective time management skills, as well as a thorough knowledge of animal husbandry. Another management caveat: It can also be very difficult to maintain a synchronized calving schedule with a dairy herd.

The results cited in their research, however, demonstrate “profitability that is well above industry averages despite per cow milk production levels that would be considered unacceptably low for a conventional dairy operation.” A revised version of the report is due out in April.

Conservation assistance
To help dairy farmers get the conservation assistance they need for a grass-based dairy, or to address other natural resource issues, Malot said the NRCS has many programs available. “Some initiatives are on the national level such as the Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative (GLCI),” she said. “Locally, the NRCS also offers assistance in areas where grazing is a priority.”

The NRCS has a host of other conservation programs that can help producers with water quality, soil erosion, wildlife, and other issues related to dairy farming. Conservation Practices and Programs for Your Farm, an eight-page, simplified guide to the conservation programs of the 2002 Farm Bill, is available to help producers identify their conservation goals and sort through their options to achieve their goals.

Free individual copies of the brochure are available from local USDA and conservation district offices, or by calling 1-888-LANDCARE. The brochure can be ordered on-line at www.nrcs.usda.gov (click on “publications”). Electronic files of the brochure are on the web at www.whmi.nrcs.usda.gov.

Written by Ron Nichols, NRCS, with excerpts from Grass-Based Farming: A Demo Dairy Project published in the October 1999 issue of Agricultural Research magazine. Additional information provided by Jonathan Winsten of the Henry A. Wallace Center for Agricultural and Environmental Policy at Winrock International, and Bryan T. Petrucci of American Farmland Trust.

For more information on grazing visit the NRCS Grazing Lands Technology Institute’s web site at http://www.ftw.nrcs.usda.gov/glti/homepage.html

The American Farmland Trust hosts a comprehensive information site on Cove Mt. Farm and grass-based farming systems at http://grassfarmer.com.

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