Amos Nolt relies on top forages, barley baleage and chicken manure

Shiloh, Ohio — Try, if you will, to poke holes in this formula for an organic, grazing-based dairy in the eastern Corn Belt:

1. Feed the dairy herd pasture, dry hay and (in a dry year) baleage for five to six months per year. Calves are the only animals getting grain during this time.

2. Grow no corn, buy no corn, feed no corn to milking animals. Invest nothing in corn-specific equipment or infrastructure. Continue reading “For organic dairy, no grain—no problem”

By Jim Munsch — There is an ongoing struggle within organic dairy about the direction of the industry’s production and business models. The debate seems to center on whether or not the details of systems to produce milk should be strongly influenced by customers.

Grazing is central to the struggle. All advertising, packaging and commentary from organic milk marketers show cows contentedly munching grass on pasture, even though not all organic milk comes from farms where grazing is important to the production system. Continue reading “Organic needs to do what people think we’re doing”

Kathie Arnold — My response to the growing cost of supplementation is to focus on improving the quality and yield of our pasture and hay crop to reduce the need for grain. That is playing out ina three areas: harvest management, seed selection, and focusing more on fertility.

With all of the recent research showing increased energy levels due to the reduced time baleage and haylage sits in a windrow respiring, we are trying to do “hay in a day” whenever possible. Other than pasture, haylage is the main forage for our milking herd. We mow in wide swaths with crushing rolls backed off as far as possible, as research has shown that leaving the stems whole facilitates quicker drying for baleage and haylage by allowing more moisture to flow up the stem and out the leaves. Crushing only seems important when we want to dry the crop all the way down for dry hay. Just prior to chopping, the cut hay is merged after having had the benefit of more sun and air exposure given the greater surface area in the wide swaths. Continue reading “Organic forum: What are you doing to reduce supplementation costs?”

Chetek, Wisconsin — Cheyenne Christianson has a simple answer for grazing-based, organic dairy producers besieged by escalating costs for purchased grain.

Don’t feed any.

While he doesn’t recommend that everyone follow his route, Cheyenne hasn’t fed a kernel of grain for nearly six years. And he is making no-grain work under what would seem to be less than ideal circumstances. Continue reading “Well-fed, no grain organic Holsteins”