Grass fed diary cow production
 

I am curious what kind of production one would get out of a purely grass fed cow. Is this even a good idea?

Hi Phil,
Scott Trautman, Trautman Farms, in SE dane county, was getting an average 28 lbs/day with forage only-feeding and once a day milking. His cows started out as calves fed that way and then matured into cows, still no grain at all. He fed a nice alfalfa-grass mix and said that having well-balanced soils to get nutritious hay was key.

We just bought a very small 5 yr jersey/guernsey from an organic dairy near westby. She was fed 20 lb grain/day at her dairy - we've got her down to 3 lbs. Her production dropped from 42 lb/day to 28/30 lb/day. We're still drowning in milk but the reduced production helps a bit. We have only been doing this a short while so no long term info about condition and persistence.

But isn't a difference in the health benefits of grass vs grain . Don't remember what the difference is.

" Milk from pastured cows offers additional health benefits. (I'm beginning to sound like a TV infomercial: "But wait! There's more!") Besides giving you five times more CLA and an ideal balance of EFAs, grassfed milk is higher in beta-carotene, vitamin A, and vitamin E.

This vitamin bonus comes, in part, from the fact that fresh pasture has more of these nutrients than grain or hay. (When grass is dried and turned into hay, it loses a significant amount of its vitamin content.) These extra helpings of vitamins are then transferred to the cow's milk.

There's another factor involved as well. A grazing cow produces less milk than a cow fed a grain-based diet. This turns out to be a bane for the farmer but a blessing for the consumer. The less milk a cow produces, the more vitamins in her milk.[3] This is because a cow has a set amount of vitamins to transfer to her milk, and if she's bred, fed, and injected to be a Super Producer, her milk has fewer vitamins per glass. " Quote from pro grass fed site.

Thanks Cathleenc and DrewCutter for your answers. I think 28 pounds per day is a little too low for me though. I was sorta thinking of getting 10 cows and shooting for a 50 pound average.

We are a rotational grazing dairy and we do feed grain in the barn. But they don't get anywhere near 20 lbs of grain a day and most of our cows are big Holstiens!
I know I am coming from a family milk cow/grazing dairy point of view, but that is a lot of grain for one cow.

Ozark :

1. How much money do you save by grass feeding your cows ? In other words can you make it worth you while to make money on your milk production ?

2. A non-farmer question : Can you pasteurize grass fed milk or would it destroy the benefits of grass fed milk ?

Of course it is a good idea - cows were never meant to eat masses of corn, they are grass eaters. I guess it just depends on how greedy you want to be in terms of how much you can get out of your cow(s), keeping in mind that if you want to turn your cow into a factory there will be costs and a price to pay.

I milk a herd of 10 all of which are pasture grazed 12 months of the year with the only supplementary feed being hay over the winter and a tin of nuts at milking which is a treat as that amount of nuts will have no impact on her dietry intake.

Drew, obviously one is going to save money grazing land that one already owns. It seems rather silly to own xx amount of acres, not use it and spend hundreds of dollars buying in grain to feed cows. There will be some initial capital expenditure such as fencing and water reticulation and the on-going cost of fertilizer (read Agman's thread on this because it doesn't have to be expensive) but I can assure you that it is far more satisfying watching cows in the sun converting grass to milk.

I personally don't pastuerize milk but the doing so destroys a lot of goodness in milk no matter how it has been produced.

Cheers,
Ronnie

#1,
We have always grazed our cows, so I don't know any other way. We have a whole different market for our milk than the average dairyman, as we make and market our own naturally produced, raw milk cheeses.
Of course not having to haul in hay year-round, and feeding less grain, we save money by grazing, but we also get a much better quality product, and our cows have a better quality of life. Not to mention a longer life. A cow is never happier than when grazing.

#2,
Pasturizing any type of good clean milk destroys some of the benefits, be it grass-fed or not. The way I see it, a healthy cow produces healthy milk. A cow is the healthiest when it is allowed to be as natural as possible. Natural for a cow is grazing. A little supplemental grain helps her to keep her condition. A herd of happily grazing bovines is the ultimate in personal satisfaction for me.

Pasture and grass feed milk cows are great, my cows milk great as long as we have lush green pastures. But being in northern Illinois the pastures aren`t very green come fall and winter. We do feed some grain in the barn to keep them in while milking and a bit more for those miking heavy and needing a little more energy through the winter. And all the hay they want. Most cows and feed high grain amounts to get maximum milk production out of them. And most cows (Holsteins inparticular) and bred for milk production only. The old breed dairy cattle are better quality milk ,higher butterfat, protien,solids. The average life for a cow on the mega dairys is only two years. Death loss on calves I have heard is up to 12 to 15 % in some Dairys. Pasturizing can be done on any milk, but you defeat the purpose by doing that, you kill all the good bacteria in the milk also. If you buy raw milk and pasturize it , you may just as well buy your milk up town. The only reason they started pasturizing milk to begin with was mostly sanitation problems, and some cattle health reasons. TB was the problem in cattle back then, and the milking equipment we use and disinfectants we wash udders with is the reason we should not be pasturizing milk today. We do such a better job of storing and cooling our milk today than they did a hundred years ago, is what makes it a much better product. When you go buy milk at a farm look around, do they have a clean milk area, clean milkhouse area, clean cows, wash their hands before handling your jars and milk equipment? There are people that milk cows I would not buy milk from, and I have neighbors that milk that buy their own milk to drink from town. The raw milk crusade is on the move, so join in help your local small dairy farmer and buy good quality raw milk from him or her and keep the profit in their pocets, instead of the milk company`s. Ok i`m off my soap box now. Thanks Marc

Sorry for all the type O`s and miss spells, I don`t proof before I send, Thanks MARC

1. My source for raw milk has a problem . His cow doesn't seem to go into heat at the right time of the year . His cow just went into heat this past week. This is second time its happen. The calf won't be born until summer time.
2. Question : does all raw milk taste the same or does breed matter or location ? I would like to be able to taste the difference , if possible (shop around for the one i like the most ??)

I think every animal can have slightly individually tasting milk, e it cows or goats. It's very hard to find milk from a single animal - if the milk comes from a bulk tank then it's the combined milk from several animals. Our single family cow's milk tastes quite different than the pooled milk from our neighbor's dairy - even both might be the same age, same temp. Feed can affect milk taste. How the milk is chilled can affect taste. The cleanliness/residue/dairy stone on the milking equipment/storage containers can affect taste. So many factors at play.

Then it make it really hard to shop for milk from the farmer. Is their a way i can judge the taste on how it chilled. In other words if i ask a farmer what method do you use chill your milk and what temp do you chill your milk i will have some way of knowing whether i will like the milk from his cows ?

Drew, unless you have the taste buds of a wine taster, your not going to notice the difference irrespective of what the cows have been fed, what breed they are or what temperature the milk has been chilled at. As Cath says, most milk goes into a bulk tank so is mixed anyway, and the chill factor in that tank won't vary as the farmer will keep it at an optimum level. Also, the taste of the milk will vary over the whole season anyway as cows come into milk, reach their peak production and begin the slow process of drying off.

Right now I am milking a Jersey cow for the house. This is deliberate on my part as I like the cream and the richness of the milk. When she goes dry the next cow for the house will be a Friesian/Jersey cross and her milk is quite different. I recognise that difference as individual cows but if I were to combine the milk of the both cows I probably wouldn't be able to tell you which cows out of my ten that milk came from.

If you have a farmer locally that has a good, clean shed, clean milking habits and clean storage habits, just take the milk and run. It will all taste good and beat the stuff you get from the supermarket hands down.

Cheers,
Ronnie

I have been on several extension-sponsored tours of grazing dairies over the last few years. Most feed a little bit of grain. One of the more impressive guys I talked to said he shoots for 50 pounds/day/cow, which would be 15,000/lactation. With modern genetics, I think it would be hard to get Holsteins below 40 pounds whether you fed grain or not - they would "milk off their backs," which means that they would get skinnier and skinnier in order to keep the milk supply going.

I knew a woman running a grass-fed only cow share program who only milked once a day and left the calves on their mothers. She had Jersey crosses and sold fifteen shares per cow, each of which entitled the "owner" to one gallon of milk per week. That would end up being 120 pounds a week, which comes to 17 pounds/day plus (two gallons) in addition to what the calf took. Her cows were thin year round but not so thin that they didn't breed back.

My milk cow gets no grain at all. When I milked her, she gave about four gallons a day at the beginning of lactation. The last two years I have put three calves on her and she raises monsters over the course of the lactation - they come in at around 700 pounds at ten months with no grain. But she gets thin - she "milks off her back."

I gave her a break this year and am just letting her raise her own calf. He is monstrous, but she is keeping her condition and I'm sure that's because she has adjusted her output downwards. My pastures are native grass but intensively rotated.

Of course, your milage may vary.

Revisiting Grass Fed Cows
 

Well I did some more figuring and brain storming on my small scale farm operation. I could make more money with 4 grass fed cows (25 pounds a cow) than I could with ten cows shipping to a conventional dairy if I were able to somehow directly sell the milk to the consumer for around 5 bucks a gallon (is that a fair price?). The bonus is I wouldn't have to buy any hay because I have enough land (between me and my parents) to provide my own feed needs.

A few snags in this plan would be for me:

1. Finding enough people to want to buy up all my production for the year.
2. Legal mumbo jumbo and food regulations

I live in Wisconsin which I am pretty sure does not allow raw milk sales. Any one that lives in Wisconsin care to tell me a few pointers?

Thanks

I'm in Oklahoma, and I pay $3.75 for a gallon of raw milk.

Is that organic or non organic? I was sorta thinking of going organic myself.

Wow, $3.75, cheapest I've seen it here is $6 per gallon, with the norm being $7-$10 per gallon. Most raw dairies have waiting lists for customers, finding customers is not the problem, having enough to sell is.

In Oregon we can sell raw milk off the farm though, legally (no advertising, only 3 cows in milk, and only sold off the farm, customer must come pick it up). Sorry, have no clue on Wisconsin but here is the link to the state by state regulations: http://www.realmilk.com/milk-laws-1.html

If its legal to sell in Wisconsin , then you might want to try to set up CSA (subscription) or be a part of buyer club. I need to find out if it legal in Indiana . Thier is a breed of cow milk that i want to try out.

Apparently it legal in Wisconsin . check this site for other who do it . http://www.eatwild.com/PRODUCTS/allgrassdairies.html

Keep in mind that "going organic" is not something you do & complete in the one season. You might want to label your milk instead as "all natural - no herbicides, pesticides, petroleum based fertilizers, growth hormones or antibiotics were used to produce this milk."

BTW - regarding pasteurizing - it also kills listeriosis bacteria - which causes miscarriage in pregnant women. Not something I 'd take lightly.

If you are selling to a plant, the milk is routinely tested for somatic cells (mastitis indicator), your tank milk is tested for plate cell count (cleanliness indicator), and it is pasteurized for safety. I believe it was also reoutinely tested for listeriosis; if it hadn't been I wouldn't have been drinking it during my first pregnancy. (Cows were gone by my second pregnancy.) If you decide on private, raw sales, please please please find some way to have your milk routinely tested if at all possible.

We stopped dairying 18 years ago, sold grade B milk from our herd of 18 holsteins. The ONLY reason it was grade B is because the milk was carried across the yard to the milk house...our milk otherwise met and exceeded all the Grade A requirements. We still have our 300 gallon bulk tank, which cooled the milk down to less than 45 degrees (37-42, I think), and we had some wonderful tasting milk.

Good milking hygeine is critical to producing a good product - cows caked in manure, udders barely washed, milk not filtered appropriately, poor cooling, and milking equipment that is not scrubbed off, rinsed, sanitized, and hung to dry appropriately in a clean, fly free environment each time it is used will all produce a very bad, and quite possibly un-safe product.

Do your homework if you want to enter into sales of milk - the DATCP in Wi can tell you all the formal regulations. There are good 'whys' behind all of it, tho it may not be easily apparent.

Here is some info I found on grass-fed dairy cattle.

http://www.thedairysite.com/articles...-to-dairy-cows

Phil, there is no such thing as legal sales of raw milk in wisconsin - the trautman farm in se dane county was just shut down maybe a month ago and there are others, too, that have been shut down due to raw milk sales. The trautmans were selling it as pet food with an agreement signed by customers to use it as pet food - didn't matter at all. I originally looked at one of the trautman's cows, post-shut down, when I was started my search for a milk cow.

grassfed pasturized milk, yes. raw milk, no. And I don't know if you can sell any milk, regardless, straight off the farm.

First I want to say great site Callieslamb. I'm always looking for good info. Until recently my family and I were drinking raw unpasteurized milk and loved it. We stopped because they started feeding grain as part of their diet. Bummer for us, but I hope to get our own dairy cow by spring time. The milking practices of the cows makes all the difference in the product you end up with.

Mark T, as you mentioned, I was wondering about a cow being too good a producer to make it without grain. Seems most dairy cows now are bred to be dependent on it. Don't know if you could get certain strains who are bred for lower production, or maybe use some dairy beef cross cows.

I had already been thinking about this, there is a near by dairy that I thought about seeing if they could help me out with testing.

Thank you for the information, a quick look up on Google confirmed what I had a suspicion of, raw milk sales are pretty much flat out not allowed, no sneaking around it. I personally have nothing against pasteurized milk and if I was going to drink my own milk I would pasteurize it myself (big germaphobe). I have milked cows (worked for a couple farms) and worked at a creamery for about 3 years so I have some dairy experience.

I would like to be somewhat immune to the radical price swings so I figured some out of the box thinking might be required to avoid them. Doing things conventionally I would have to produce about 152,500 pounds a year (417 pounds a day average) at 8 dollars a hundred minimum to make it. The idea of having half the cows and making more money to boot is an attractive one to me. There is a large dairy about 25 miles from me that sells milk right off the farm (pasteurized of coarse).

Phil, I am pretty sure there is a Wisconsin Grazier's group that you could connect to through your county ag Extension agent. THey would be a wealth of information if you wanted to consider intensive grazing, limiting grain, organic, and/or seasonal milking. Also, the cows they have selected for do well with a grazing system. Many have played with cross breeds, and are having success. It isn't always about the price they receive for the milk, but the lower inputs that help make it profitable.

could you raise dairy calves - grass fed - & sell the finished product? The butchering could be done at an approved plant. The consumer knowledge base about the benefits of grass fed is growing rapidly...

I have had our own raw milk on our farm throughout my last three pregnancies and have never hesitated to drink it for fear of listeriosis. Listeriosis in many cases occurs in pasteurized milk that has been contaminated after the pasteurization process. It has also been linked to bad silage in many cases.

I know the process my milk goes through from before it leaves the cow until it is in my refrigerator. My cows are healthy, pastured, fed a minimal amount of grain, and not kept in tightly confined mucky areas where they become caked in manure.

I agree with Emily: healthy cows produce healthy milk.