Once-A-Day Milking

Even though I'm mostly interested in "None'ce-A-Day" milking (I don't really want to be a dairy farmer) I read the cover story of the February issue of "Graze" with great interest. The title of the article is, "The economics of once-a-day milking", and it deals with the experiences of veteran dairyman Cliff Hawbaker and his transition not only to once-a-day milking, but also a little bit of no-grain dairying. That is what I love about "Graze" so far ... they go straight to the source and it seems like the articles are just straight forward, "here is what is working and here is what isn't working," kind of stuff.

Like I said, I'm not really interested in running a dairy (or even having a milk cow at this time), but what I can respect and what I actually love to read about is someone who is going against the grain and against conventional wisdom. In a time when there are dairies moving to three-a-day milkings and souped up cows the fact that Mr. Hawbaker is transitioning to a seasonal, grass bassed, and once-a-day dairy farm is really against the grain.

But, from reading the article it doesn't seem that he is doing it because he has a deep desire to have grass only cattle or because he is trying to reach a specialty market. The reason that he has changed and is in the process of changing is because he wants to make better use of his time and resources so that he can make more money! I guess maybe bigger isn't always better. The other thing that Mr. Hawbaker said he liked about the seasonal/once-a-day milking is that he has time for family and his partners have time for family also. That isn't to say that they aren't plenty busy, but rather you can work your schedule a bit more when you only have to milk once.

Of course there were plenty of numbers and figures in the article that didn't make a lot of sense to this non-dairy guy, but between and around all of that there were some great insights on making the transition from conventional dairy to un-conventional dairy and all the while continuing to sell to the conventional market. It hasn't been easy for them and while he bought more land to begin an all new grass based herd he is also transitioning his old herd to the new system.

They have had trouble with dry weather and the lack of organic matter in their soil from the years of conventional farming, but even still he thinks this is the best fit for him and his farm. I love his attitude!

If you want to read a little bit about Mr. Hawbaker and his seasonal/once-a-day dairy farm I did find this online article. Any of you with dairy experience or thoughts want to comment on this?

Got Milk? Raw Milk that is...

Yesterday I came across an article on the New Farm website titled, "Dairyman wants super-quality raw milk in retail stores". The dairyman in this case is Jerry Synder, of Sunny Cove Farm, and the "super-quality" raw milk is unpasturized, 100% organic, and pathogen free. Mr. Synder direct markets his milk (along with grassfed beef, organic apples, and maple syrup) from an on farm store that is open Tuesday through Friday from 2:00 PM until 5:00 PM. He runs a small herd, by most standards, of 50 cows on his all grass dairy.

It all sounds great ... super quality milk, an all grass dairy, organic beef, on farm sales, the store is only open 12 hours a week, small scale, family operated, and customers willing to pay the premium. But, Mr. Synder doesn't want to just sell his milk on the farm. He wants to fight the laws and the regulations to allow "super quality milk" that has been super tested to be sold in the stores. Mr. Synder has his milk tested regularly and it tests at levels 1/4 of the allowed limit. He attributes those great results with quality herd management, knowledge of genetics, sanitation, and nutrition.

At this point I have no desire to have a milking operation on the farm, unless it is just milking a couple of our Dexters for ourselves. But, I find this battle going on in New York pretty interesting because Mr. Synder is producing a superior product and is now trying to work within the system in order to take it to a larger market. It reminds me of Joel Salatin's book, "Everything I Want to Do is Illegal" (which I will read sometime). I encourage you to check out this article and give me your thoughts on raw milk sales. Also, I would be interested in what the laws are in your state. I think here in Iowa it is illegal.

Quality Pasture :: Chapter 10 Book Report

I just finished up reading chapter 10 of "Quality Pasture" by Allan Nation. This chapter was titled, "Seasonal Grass Dairying". I knew from the title that there wasn't going to be a lot of specific information in this chapter that would be useful for any operation that I was thinking about at the time, but it was still a good read. Dairying seems to a be an art, kind of like baling or just about all farming, that takes a good amount of knowledge about animals, health, forages, and more. I'm not about ready to tackle that right off (did you read my post about the farmer who hit the end), but I did find a lot of interesting nuggets in this chapter.

The most encouraging thing I read was the examples from real life farmers who are making grass based seasonal dairies work. So often when you mention some ideas you find from sources such as Joel Salatin, Allan Nation, the Stockman Grass Farmer, and other books/periodicals you get the standard Iowa farming tradition answer, "well, that won't work for you or here". But, this chapter proved that there are plenty of guys out there that are feeding forages for their main feed and running a seasonal dairy for a decent profit. Plus, the get the benefit of a few months off!

Another interesting thing is how America seems to be lagging behind in terms of thinking outside of the grain box (or should I say bushel basket). One interesting piece of information comes from Carl Pulvermacher a Holstein grazier from Wisconsin.

"He said his 68 acres of pasture land currently grosses #1430.70 per acre ($1305.20 from milk and $125.50 from meat) compared to only $402 from his corn ground (162 bushels at $2.50 - grain is higher now - per bushel)." -Quality Pasture by Allan Nation (pg. 186)

It seems like sometime our farmers would catch on to things like that ... but, maybe I'm just missing something? Please let me know if I am!

The last thing that I found really interesting in this chapter was a list of cost cutters for most dairy producers. While it is geared for the dairymen I thought it would be just as important for a beef cattle producer:

1. Get Your Breeding Season In Sync With the Pasture


2. Stop Grain Farming


3. Concentrate On Cutting Feed Costs


4. Minimize Machinery Costs


5. Increase Stocking Rate


6. Be Realistic About Animal Genetics


7. Don't Blame The Animals For Lack Of Profits


8. Change As Fast As Possible

If you have any thoughts on these things I would love to hear them!