A new generation of pasture-based dairy producers combine U.S. and New Zealand farming techniques. These innovators refine systems to overcome many obstacles that relegated pasture dairies in the U.S. to “alternative dairy models.” Some thought them only for smaller dairies, organic producers, niche markets and microclimates.
Strategic changes in the dairy industry revived interest in pasture-based dairying. These changes include: extreme volatility in feed and hay prices, margin pressure, surging cropland prices, and environmental and animal welfare concerns for confinement operations.
When farm-level milk prices around the world converged, motivation increased. Imaginative producers asked if pasture-based systems used to produce low-cost milk elsewhere could work for U.S. producers.
Over the past 15 years, Missouri has had a ringside seat to watch a new generation of pasture-based dairy systems evolve and be refined.
In 1999, the University of Missouri started a seasonal pasture-based dairy at their Southwest Research Center near Mt. Vernon. Local dairy producers supporting the project soon began adopting lessons learned.
Early adopters of grazing systems soon expanded and developed new dairies in the early 2000s. In addition, new dairy producers from other states began moving into Missouri to farm near a cluster of like-minded dairymen.
The producers formed neighborhood groups to conduct pasture walks. They taught each other. The events were educational, supportive and social.
In 2006, New Zealand equity partnerships began arriving. They built several larger pasture-based dairies based upon familiar New Zealand designs.
These dairies typically have 500 to 1,500 cows each on pasture. This influx of Kiwi ideas changed the way parlors were built, pastures budgeted and herds managed in Missouri.
By 2013, more than 25 percent of the state’s 93,000 dairy cows lived on one of these new pasture dairy farms. More changed during the past 15 years on Missouri’s pasture-based dairy farms.
Cows are smaller and more fertile. Crossbreeding using artificial insemination and sires from pasture genetics created hardy herds that breed back in 12-month windows.
This new hardiness lowered cull rates to less than 20 percent. Batch-breeding a whole herd at one time using timed-A.I. protocols results in sufficient replacement heifers.
Fifteen years ago, going seasonal was scary. Breeding wrecks occurred when the genetic stock on the farm was not selected for seasonal pasture-based dairying. Today, thousands of surplus heifers are available.
These replacements from seasonal dairies mean new dairies can start immediately with breeding animals bred with grazing in mind. Missouri became a seedstock supplier for grazing dairy producers in other states.
Most important, pastures get more respect. Top producers compete to define the ideal fertility, species mix, balance of paddocks devoted to perennials versus annuals and whether or not irrigation pays.
Over the past 20 years, ideas on ideal seed mixes for a pasture evolved. Missouri producers stopped using cocktail mixes aimed at long-term stand persistence. Now more producers use only perennial ryegrass and white clover to maximize forage quality.
Other producers think this sacrifices stand persistence too much. Today’s compromise relies on novel-endophyte fescue seeded with white clover. Producers supplement seasonally with a portion of the paddocks in annuals.
Producers are using a “grazing wedge” website to budget pasture supply for optimal quality. This requires estimating growth rates and dry matter intakes weekly by measuring pastures across all paddocks on the farm.
The grazing wedge became a tool for managing feed on a pasture-based dairy farm. It visually represents the quality and quantity of forage dry matter available both now and during the next round of grazing.
The University of Missouri’s online grazing wedge calculator is often used by producers to automate and share pasture-budgeting info.
In the Missouri climate, grazed pastures typically supply from 50 percent to 70 percent of the total annual dry matter intake of the cows on these dairies, once winter feeding and supplementation are included.
During lactation, producers typically feed about 25 percent of the dry matter as supplement. That feeding level still varies widely by producers. Innovative producers don’t all think alike.
Facilities today are more labor-efficient. Designs of parlors, holding areas and lanes changed with ideas copied from New Zealand. Even skeptics redefined parlors for higher throughput per man-hour.
Batch-breeding, calf raising and drying off improved labor efficiency on the seasonal herds. Calving all at once creates a new set of weather risks and labor challenges, however.
Risk management ideas evolved, by necessity. Drought can devastate the profitability of a grazing dairy. During a drought, a grazing dairy has to feed high-cost stored forage and concentrate to a dairy cow designed for low milk production and low variable costs.
Traditional ways to mitigate these risks include planting emergency rescue crops of annuals when the rains return, irrigation, insurance and carrying extra inventory of stored forage through the years.
Dairying has always been a lifestyle, as much as a farming business. Those operating seasonal pasture-based dairy farms seem to add more family and social considerations. The neighborhood clusters for pasture walks encourage this development.
Another appealing factor of seasonal dairying is the dry period. When all milking stops, usually right before Christmas, and doesn’t resume until calving time, around February 1, family and vacation time becomes possible. Christmas morning with the kids, and not milking, has appeal. PD
Joe Horner
Dairy Economist
Missouri Extension
