GRAZING MANAGEMENT – Graze magazine

August 25, 2025

A growing herdshare business

Nurse cows and tall grazing help make the system work smoothly for the Bairs

By Martha Hoffman Kerestes

Troy, Ohio — Two dozen years after first turning their conventional herd out to pasture, David and Annette Bair are bringing on the next generation, milking 48 cows for one of the largest herdshare programs in Ohio, and eyeing more growth as demand continues to expand.

It’s a long way down the road from where things were at when David got fed up harvesting feed for the confinement dairy around the turn of the century. He was moving from 3rd and 4th cut hay straight into corn silage and then directly into high moisture ear corn, and it was a lot of time to spend on the tractor.

“I was spending every day for 90 days that the weather was fit in the tractor chopping, and it was costing a lot of money to do that,” David says. “I just thought we could do better if we could just send the cows out and harvest their own feed.”

When he pitched the idea of letting the cows out to graze, his dad was hesitant but willing to try.

“My dad’s biggest fear was ‘what if it turns dry?’,” David explains. “He was worried pasture wouldn’t be able to keep supplying forage if it turned dry.”

David seeded 25 acres and grazed the herd in 2001 for part of their ration. And one part of his father’s fear came true as the season turned dry, but the pasture didn’t fail them.

June 10, 2025

Raising triplet lambs on pasture

Using management and selection to make triplets an asset in grassfed production

By Janet McNally

Triplets have never been regarded as an asset in an all-grass system. I have within my flock a line of ewes with the prolific booroola, or B, gene. This is a line of sheep I started before I switched to grazing.

A ewe with one copy of the B gene typically gives birth to 2.47 to 2.78 lambs. Suffice to say I have had to address how to raise triplets in the context of a grass-based system.

Over time my method of raising triplets has evolved.

Barn-feeding bust

Initially only one in three ewes had enough milk to feed all three lambs.

So I did what everyone does. I pulled the third lamb off, raised it in the barn on milk replacer and creep feed, then returned it to pasture after weaning.

They invariably crashed no matter how good they looked at weaning. The weight loss was inevitable, and they would not recover by market time.

May 6, 2025

Pushing the boundaries of grazing

Grazing 300-plus days a year in the north

By Martha Hoffman Kerestes

Loganville, Wisconsin — Darren Yanke and his family graze a grassfed beef herd in the hills of southwestern Wisconsin, and one of the farm’s aims is to feed as little hay as possible.

“My goal is to graze for 360 days a year,” Darren says. “I’m not sure if it’s gonna happen or not.”

Last year was the first 300-day grazing season, and he thinks there’s plenty of upward possibility. Darren guesses that 330 days of grazing would be a reasonable average, since this part of the country usually has a month sometime in the winter where things are iced over and grazing isn’t very feasible. Snowfall is usually moderate and the cows graze through the snow without issues.

Most people in his area feed hay for five or six months over the winter. Darren wants to use the money saved on hay for other pasture expenses including more winter watering spots so more parts of the farm are available for stockpile grazing.

Finding the limits of grazing days per year is just one way the Yankes are experimenting with the grazing operation to find new practices that work for the farm.

“We’re pushing the boundaries all the time,” he says. “I don’t want to be traditional. I want to keep pushing forward, doing what other people aren’t doing, staying in front of the curve.”

March 31, 2025

Building a first-generation dairy

Shipping milk and making cheese are a winning combination for the Webbs

By Martha Hoffman Kerestes

Enosburg Falls, Vermont — Tyler and Melanie Webb are first-generation dairy farmers. In fact, Tyler hadn’t ever milked a cow when his herd started calving, so he had to ask a neighbor to come over and show him how to use the milker.

But almost two decades into dairying, they are seasoned graziers with a spring-seasonal herd, an Organic Valley market, and an artisan cheese business.

The Webbs steward around 400 acres, with 275 owned and the rest rented. There are 160 acres of pasture and 120 acres for perennial stored forage, and the rest of the land is managed woodland or set aside for riparian, wildlife, and pollinator habitat. There are 70 milking cows here on the farm in northwestern Vermont.

“Efficient grazing machines”

The farm consists of mostly silt loams. Rocks abound (hence the name Stony Pond Farm), so sward change happens through frost seeding improved red and white clovers, not tillage and reseeding. Management is part of it too.

“Our main route for improving pastures is through stocking density and frequency of moves,” Tyler explains.

March 12, 2025March 12, 2025

Setting up for growth in grassfed

Changes to management and infrastructure are key for the Hershbergers

By Martha Hoffman Kerestes

Editor’s note: Graze likes to check in with previously featured farmers. Here’s an update from a northeastern Ohio grassfed dairy producer (Graze March 2020).

Fredericksburg, Ohio — Infrastructure and management changes have set the stage for David and Emily Hershberger’s dairy to grow.

The main goal is to open the door for the next generation.

“Our son got married, and he’d like to come home and farm,” David explains.

A new parlor, groundwork for freestall expansion, and management changes like fall-seasonal calving and nurse cows are part of pursuing that goal.

And since the couple and their 12-year-old daughter Eve are the only labor right now, those changes also make things more manageable from a labor standpoint.

February 7, 2025February 7, 2025

From once- to twice-daily milking

The Murrays spent their time on OAD on projects to make life easier

By Martha Hoffman Kerestes

Truxton, New York — Time is a limited commodity, and that’s one of the reasons some dairy farmers, including Ryan and Annie Murray (Graze January 2021), choose to milk once a day (OAD). With more cows than their 80-cow tie stall milking setup could hold in one batch, it was the most workable choice given their labor constraints back in 2020.

But instead of being a long-term fit, OAD milking ended up being a stepping stone back to more efficient twice-daily (TAD) milking with their expanding herd.

The Murrays had talked with a number of OAD graziers who told them that the key to success is good management of the additional time from milking less.

“It’s all about what you do with your time,” Annie says. “Lots of people use that time to make money. We didn’t earn money, but we spent time on projects that made twice-a-day milking easier.”