A2B-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, February 22, 2003 Penn State Cooperative Extension Capitol Region Dairy Team DAIRY SYSTEMS: IS GRAZING IN YOUR FAMILY FARM’S FUTURE? Beth Grove Extension Agent Dairy/Environment Lancaster County Hold on a minute! Before you turn the page thinking this article is not for you, take a moment to read why increasing numbers of farmers are considering grazing for their dairy herds. I was raised on a “traditional” dairy operation where grazing cattle, while appreciated for foot health and cow cleanliness, was thought of as unfavorable to high milk production and profits. However, recent research data from around the country illus trates that the rotational “gra ziers” just may be onto some thing pretty exciting and some of their ideas may be useful in whole or in part for many con ventional farms. In the past few years, unstable milk prices and dry weather have caused many smaller producers to take a hard look at their dairy operations and see where changes can be made to improve profits. Some farm owners have in creased herd size to produce enough income to provide for their families, with a good num ber taking the traditional route of confinement operations with large debt loads to do so. While this can work well, other produc ers simply do not want to go into large amounts of debt to continue the dairy operation. These pro ducers are looking at alternatives for making milk at lower cost, one of which can be a grass-based dairy. Let’s define a grass-based dairy. First of all, a grazing oper ation could be defined as one who depends on “carefully-man aged” pastures to provide more than 30 percent of the forage for the milking herd. “Carefully managed” does not mean turning out the milking herd onto the side of a hill it means selecting species and forage mixes that will result in high nutrient levels, planted in highly fertile soils. Skilled graziers manage their pastures as a crop, monitoring growth rate, quality, yields, and more. The grazing dairy produc er will move his herd from pad dock to paddock to allow for re growth and higher overall yields. Intensive grazing will often take closer supervision than a tradi tional feeding program. Keep in mind that in many cases, the most successful grazing dairies are not the ones who have the lowest inputs of grain and fertilizer, but rather those that average the lowest cost per CWT of milk sold. Oftentimes, the most profits are seen by those farms that do feed substantial amounts of grain and keep fertili ty high in their pastures. The amount of milk sold per farm is still important, often achieved with higher stocking rates. Acpqrdiqg,to Dr. Carl Polan of 1 1 1 . 1 Beth Grove Virginia Tech, “The highest qual ity feed that you can make avail able to your cows is the cheapest price. Lush growing clover-grass that has been managed by inten sive grazing is high in both crude protein and energy. Young, lush plants have an expected net ener gy (NEL) content of 0.75 meal/ pound or more; compare that to recommended dietary NEL of 0.78 for a heavily lactating cow or for com silage NEL of 0.72. In addition, the feed value is always more when grazed directly. It has been proven more than once that forage quality decreases when en siled and even greater losses occur when made into hay.” While intensive grazing is cer tainly not for everyone, it can be a great way to keep overhead and operating costs down while maxi mizing “pounds of milk sold” per farm worker at the dairy. Equip ment costs are often reduced, making a grass-based operation ideal for a young person who cannot afford to purchase the equipment needed for a conven tional cropping operation. Addi tionally, grazing can improve cow health by keeping cows off concrete and mud and on a clean sod, reducing the involuntary cull rate. Grazing can also reduce nu trient run-off from bams and holding areas. Of course, not all grazing oper ations are profitable, just as not all conventional farms make money. In either operation, good management is the best indicator of success. So which system is more profitable, grazing or con ventional? It very much depends on your farm, family, and land resources available. A report by Kriegl, et. al, eval uated 2000 financial data from the “Great Lakes Grazing Net work,” a group consisting of vari ous farmers, researchers, and in dustry leaders in several states. To be considered a grazier in these comparisons, farms must have harvested more than 30 per cent of their grazing season for age needs as pasture; they also needed to provide cows with fresh pasture at least once every three days. Less than 10 percent of the herds in the grazing group were “seasonal” farms. The researchers then com-. pared financial and production data from grazing herds with data from conventional farms in New York and Wisconsin, as these states collected similar fin ancial information. For these herds, they compared Net Farm Income From the Operation (NFIFO) per cow both with labor cost factored in and without de ducting labor compensation. The two measures were used to com pare farms that used a good deal of hired labor (usually the con ventional operations) to farms that often relied entirely on un paid family labor. The results are included in the table reproduced here. As you can see from this data, the reduced pounds of milk per cow on the grazing dairies were more than offset by their control of labor and operating costs. The average grass based farmer in both states was more profitable than their confinement counter parts even though their produc tion per cow was lower. When labor costs were not considered, the New York confinement dair ies had a Farm Income per cow of $663 versus $534 per cow for grazing farms, but with labor costs deducted, the graziers had an overall advantage. It also appeared from herds in these two states that smaller grazing farms (under 100 cows) had a higher profit margin than grazing operations with more Table I. 2000 Financial Performance of Graziers in New York and Wisconsin Number of herds 16 605 65 239 Number of cows 65 109 93 294 per herd Average 16,404 20,202 17,107 22,167 production / cow NFI FO per cow. 689 640 534 663 (without considering labor compensation) NFIFO per cow 617 296 315 181 Kriegl, et. al, 2002 than 100 cows. The seasonal dair ies (only seven in the data set), however, had a lower NFIFO profit per cow than the average nonseasonal herd. Closer to home in Maryland, the Maryland Cooperative Exten sion Service has evaluated con ventional and grass based dairies for several years. Extension agent Don Schwartz and his colleagues have compared 24 conventional dairies with 12 grass-based oper ations for the past five years. The grazing dairies in the comparison averaged 86 cows per farm. The conventionally managed herds averaged 117 cows per farm. The results are listed here. For these 36 farms, the average of years 1997-2001 showed that the grazing operations produced an additional profit of $1.09 per CWT of milk sold, or a $lOO per cow higher profit than conven tional herds. It was also interest ing to note that the grazing herds averaged a lower cost of 62 cents/CWT for feed, seed, and fertilizer than the confinemr operations, as well as a 57 lower labor cost per CWT. The Maryland grazing opei tions generated a lower profit farm ($49,663 vs. $56,017), this was most certainly due t( lower total cow numbers on grass based dairies. Another more “long-tei benefit being investigated is higher “conjugated linoleic ai (CLA) content of milk from fed arass-based diets. CLAs found in milk fat nonfat milk contains little CLA. Research has shown that CLAs have certain “anti-cancer” properties; more over, increased consumption of CLAs has been related to de creased fat deposition in the body and an enhanced immune system function. This means that milk from cows in grazing herds may have more health benefits and therefore could be more attrac tive to the consumer. Wouldn’t this be a great way to market dairy products? Intensive grazing is not for every producer. If you enjoy fieldwork and working with equipment, a grazing operation may not suit your abilities. If you have large investments in ma chinery or new buildings, you will need to carefully evaluate your ability to meet these payments with your existing herd under a grazing system. The grazing farms with high herd averages have plenty of high energy for ages available and are able to keep dry matter intake high. (It is a good idea to work with a nu tritionist who understands graz ing and has experience in this area.) If you do not have access to fertile, well-drained soils, grazing may not work for your farm. Tim Fritz of King’s Agriseeds notes that a dairy generally needs a minimum of one acre per cow for intensive grazing or .5 acre/cow WISCONSIN Coni Grazini Table 2. 1997-2001 Financial Performance of Graziers in Maryland Number of herds Numbers of cows per herd Average production /cow Purchased feed, seed, fert / CWT Labor cost / CWT Profit Profit per CWT Profit per COW V. ofMD, 1/9/2003 Lancaster Farming Check out our Website! NEW YORK Grazini Inement Grazinj 16,700 4.69 49,663 :r FARM 3.49 580 www.lancasterfarmina.com for partial grazing, although these numbers can vary from farm to farm. Who should consider grazing? First and foremost, you must enjoy working with cows! You need to be able to “think out of the box” as well as have the abili ty to manage the pastures, yields, and feed intake closely, because changes can occur on a daily basis. Expansion through grazing can allow you to spend your money on productive units (that is, “cows”) instead of facilities. If you are a small, “traditional” farmer with older equipment and facilities but plenty of land avail able, a gradual transition to graz ing (either intensive or partial) can be very profitable. If you are just starting out with access to good soils and a land base to sup port a grazing operation, it would definitely pay to take a closer look at this system before taking on a great deal of debt. Take a look at grazing it may fit well into your family farm’s future! Note: the Pennsylvania Graz ing and Forage Conference will be conducted at the Holiday Inn in Grantville March 5-6. Contact Marvin Hall at (814) 863-1019 or Lisa Crytser at (814) 865-2543 for more information. For more in formation on grass-based dairy ing, contact Beth Grove at the Lancaster County Extension of fice at (717) 394-6851. Con, Inement Con. i ement 117 20,000 5 31 1.18 56,017 2.40 480
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