Thursday July 9, 2009, 7:51 am
"Pasture-based dairying has gone mainstream," said Joe Horner, dairy economist with the University of Missouri Extension Commercial Agriculture Program.

Since 2004, producers have invested more than $100 million in capital into pasture-based dairies. During that time, the number of cows on Missouri pasture-based dairies has grown from about 5,000 to almost 20,000.

In the 1970s, dairies started to rely less on grazing and more on purchased feedstock, which was relatively cheap at the time. However, many of Missouri's family-run dairies saw their profit margins erode when feed prices shot up. Family farms couldn't compete against the huge dairies springing up in western states, where abundant, sparsely populated land and more lenient environmental regulations let producers take advantage of economies of scale unavailable to smaller dairies. Missouri's dairy herd fell from a peak of more than one million cows in the 1940s to about 110,000 cows today.

Why is pasture-based dairying bucking that trend? After all, you can get a lot more milk per cow at a conventional feedlot dairy, where producers can closely monitor cow growth and precisely manage the herd's diet.

While pasture-based dairies, or grazing dairies, may not be able to compete on quantity, they can compete on cost. The feedstock, infrastructure and labor needs of conventional dairies make them expensive to run. Grazing dairies can operate profitably on a smaller scale because it's cheaper to feed cows with forage than with purchased feedstock.

"A conventional-type dairy delivers most of the feed to the cow. We're delivering the cow to the feed," said Eric Hoffman, who owns a 160-cow pasture-based dairy in Grundy County.

Dairy graziers rotate herds through intensively managed pastures. The cows distribute their manure across the land in the natural course of things. This puts nutrients back into the soil, reduces the human workload and avoids the environmental issues presented by large concentrations of animal waste. Horner said producers have seen fewer animal-health issues on grazing dairies, which is good for the animals and the producer's bottom line.

Startup costs are lower in pasture-based dairying, and it's easier to obtain financing for a new a grazing dairy than a conventional operation, which requires a big upfront investment in equipment and facilities-assets that, as Horner puts it, "rust, rot and depreciate."

For grazing dairies, the main investment is in land and cattle. "Most of your assets either reproduce or appreciate," Horner said. Lenders see that as a much better risk than specialized structures that may not have much resale value if the operation goes under.


TheCattleSite News Desk

Thursday July 9, 2009, 8:04 am
Thanks Cowboss! Happy cows are good... :)

Thursday July 9, 2009, 8:52 am
Thanks cowboss. This is great news. I wish someone would sell the economic pasture-based dairy farm model to some of the operators here in cow-torture land.

Friday July 10, 2009, 8:30 am
What's New? 1953 I milked 47 head on 160 acres in upper NY state. We grew our own winter feed, corn ensilage and baled hay, our own grain, corn milled at a local feed mill. As soon as the weather permitted, the cows were out on pasture, spreading their own manure.We spread the manure from the dairy barn with a tractor drawn spreader. This farm was in the family since the Great Depression - without electricity and sent 5 kids to college.

Friday July 10, 2009, 8:43 am
Smile. No it isn't new, but what is good is it is getting more attention again. Thanks cowboss.

Friday July 10, 2009, 9:13 am
I love cows, and now a happy cow, I'll love even more,
Tx Cowboss!

Friday July 10, 2009, 9:20 am
Happier days gone by are new again?
Thanks Cowboss

Friday July 10, 2009, 11:51 am
thanks cowboss old ways are best new ones are just scary

Saturday July 11, 2009, 11:45 pm
Cows should be outside and roaming, less disease form happy cows. Need to do that here in California rather than stinking up the highways.

Monday July 13, 2009, 3:46 am
This is the way our people did it- simple and natural! ( I wonder how much time and money the government spent on 'studying' this issue for their conclusions when it only comes down to common sense!)