Volume 25, No. 10December 2018

‘by graziers, for graziers’

By Tamara Scully

Why a cheesemaker values grazing

By Eric Grim

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Pages 4-6

Tackling cobalt

deficiency

Page 8 Page 22Page 12

Too rugged?

Page 14

Mining soil

minerals

Getting minerals into cows

Wet weather forces grazing changes

Whites say grazing is as important as cheese skills

Dealing with

deluges

Bobolink Dairy and BakehouseFor 16 years Nina and Jonathan White have been building a business their way.

Milford, New Jersey — Jonathan White has a secret: When it comes to making award-winning cheeses, the cows and grazing man-agement are just as important as his cheesemaking skills.

Jonathan, who owns and operates Bobolink Dairy and Bakehouse with his wife, Nina, says the combina-tion of the herd’s genetics and their no-grain, pasture-centered diet cre-ates milk that imbues their raw milk cheeses with extraordinary taste and texture.

The Whites have the history to back up that claim. Their cheeses have won numerous awards since 2002, with one of the more recent being a silver medal from the L’Association de Fromages de Terroirs at the Lyon, France, Farm Cheese Awards.

They have been successfully milk-ing cows for the past 16 years with cattle genetics and per-cow produc-tion levels that are quite different

from the norm on most American dairy farms.

The farm’s 50-cow herd of “Bobolink Blacks” is a carefully curated mix of Kerry genetics along with some Ayrshire, Jersey and Guernsey. It has been closed since 2008.

The Kerry breed is valued by the Whites for its grazing ability, small but fast-growing calves, calving ease on pasture and long lives.

The cows are bred to one of a dozen or so homegrown bulls selected to breed out aggression and stupidity. Although their primary purpose is as dairy animals, the farm also produces 100% grassfed beef for direct sales.

“I really want both (meat and dairy animals) in the herd. I want sturdy animals, even in the milking herd,” Jonathan explains.

Calves are typically born in March

and raised on pasture by their mothers for approximately four months before being moved into weaning groups of a half-dozen animals.

Bull calves deemed to be unsuitable for the herd as bulls or beef are culled as suckled veal when ready for wean-ing. The weaning pens are separated from the mother cows in a fenceline weaning arrangement.

The milking herd is dried off in the fall, with days in lactation averaging just 190. And Bobolink cows are on a

once-a-day milking schedule through-out lactation. Per-cow production is not impressive: Jonathan estimates it at about 15 lbs./day, not including suckled milk.

But the amount of milk produced per cow is not important here. With all of the milk not consumed by calves going into their own cheeses, the Whites focus on the quality.

Simply put, the farm’s dairy herd exists in order for Jonathan to make cheese. If the cheese doesn’t sell, the herd has no commercial purpose.

The Whites do not even use tradi-tional American terms in measuring their production. “We measure (milk) production in kilos of cheese per acre per season, not pounds or liters of milk per head,” Jonathan says.

100% grassfedWhile some grazing-based farm-

stead cheesemakers making high-end raw milk cheeses, such as Wisconsin’s award-winning Uplands Cheese, say that a little grain actually adds to the flavor characteristics of the products, the Whites have always been 100% grassfed.

“My mentor, the late chef Jean-Louis Palladin, used to tell me that my cheeses made from conventional milk were as good as they could be,

Here in north central Ohio, weather damage caused Lorain County to be declared an official Disaster Area eligible for federal disaster aid in five of the past six years.

Less disastrous, but also a prob-lem for us, it seems that our gradual warmup in the spring has changed to cool, wet periods followed by abrupt turnarounds to hot weather, followed by dry spells that are also hot.

The new weather pattern has made grazing a challenge. Up until

2017 we followed the old standby of grazing the pastures only for short periods of time in large sec-tions, moving temporary fencing often (four to six times daily). We tried to keep the cattle on drier ground, with access to enough high-quality forages.

We had them in the barns at night to provide a dry place to lie down. All of the pastures were grazed at least once before we would even attempt to make hay/baleage, which occurred sometime after the middle of June.

The result of all this work was pastures full of poor-quality feed.

Toward the end of May as the ground dried out and the days got longer and warmer, the cool season grasses in the swards would shoot seed heads and the high-quality for-age the cows needed to make milk was gone.

At best, all we could do was mow, bale and wait for the re-growth. Of course regrowth would be set back because as the days got longer, the conditions would get hot and dry. The dry spell could last a couple of weeks or go on for several months.

Grassfed cheese

Page 2 December 2018

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Bobolink Dairy and BakehouseHeifers graze more extensively compared to the milking herd.

and that if I wanted to take my art to the next level I needed to find some grassfed cows,” Jonathan explains.

Indeed, the reason the Whites decided to milk cows and become graziers in the first place is that they could not find a supply of 100% grassfed milk to support their budding cheese enterprise.

Says Jonathan, “We started to plan to make the very best cheese possible, and established a herd, grazing system and cheese making approach that would serve that goal.”

More than wildflowersAt Bobolink dairy, value is placed

on the variation and complexity of the milk rather than its consistency. The milk’s properties vary week to week and season to season depending on the forages available, all of which af-fects the qualities of each cheese that is made.

While this may lead to images of cows leisurely picking through tall flowers, the Whites are serious about their grazing management. Coming into this from the cheesemaking side in 2002, they had to learn the art and science of grazing from scratch.

This is their second farm, having

previously farmed a rented property. Purchased in 2010, the 186 acres — 150 acres of pasture and the balance in wooded areas — consist largely of steep hillside, level hilltop pastures and a deep ravine, with some flat land by the road.

The fields had been tilled for years in a standard hay, corn and GMO soybean rotation, and the damage showed, Jonathan says.

On some of the land, atrazine levels were too high for anything other than sorghum, teff and millet, all corn cousins that can break down atrazine. The fields were rocky and filled with poison ivy and invasive weeds. Any remaining topsoil was eroding into the ravine.

Jonathan seeded some of the worst fields to millet that first season. He was able to graze the pastures a dozen times that year, as the millet grew two or three feet every three weeks.

By mid-September, as the millet growth slowed, “The native seedbank of orchardgrass, white and crim-son clovers, plantain, some fescue, medic and dandelion,” were able to germinate, he says. “We had a lot of wild garlic and poison ivy, but the cows, loving these pesky weeds, have grazed them out.”

Jonathan did seed some wetter

areas. These remain productive today as the grasses have stabilized the soil structure. They are routinely grazed and remain dry in all but the wettest weather.

“It’s amazing how quickly Mother Nature recovers,” Jonathan says. As farmers, “we need to change the way we think to work with nature.”

Nina has her own thoughts on this subject: “We prefer to look at ourselves as regenerative rather than industrially influenced.”

In any event, the land is improving. Samples taken by Joseph Heckman, Extension specialist in soil fertility at Rutgers University, have shown steady increases in soil organic matter levels.

The cattle herd (about 130 head, with around 50 milking) is divided

into two grazing groups — the milk-ers and the rest.

The milking herd, which usually in-cludes about a dozen suckling calves, grazes on two- to three-acre paddocks with a new break made daily, either directly following the morning milk-ing or in late afternoon.

Rest periods vary from about three weeks up to a month, with four inches the target for post-grazing residuals. Jonathan has no set formula for when to turn the cows into a fresh pasture.

“Our pastures are quite diverse, so there’s no simple answer of “X” inches of height. I look at the field not as simply an area and a height, but rather look at the density of the edible biomass. So a field with alsike clover, plantain, dandelion, orchardgrass and wild garlic would look a lot denser at

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Fine cheeses and artisan breads sell well in nearby metropolitan areas.

six inches than fescue at eight inch-es,” he explains.

The milking herd has constant access to a wooded field where they tend to spend the hottest parts of the day. Jonathan says this area is being used too heavily, and he is looking to establish a new shaded location to reduce some of the pressure.

The non-milking animals have 50 acres of pasture and wooded area divided into just three paddocks with the gates left open.

The first-year calves tend to graze by themselves, while most of the rest of the animals move together across the pastures on their own. The stocking density is low in this group, and White will mow any sections of uneaten, less desirable plant growth to prevent them from seeding.

Stock water is provided via a solar-powered system featuring a hilltop pump house and 3,600 feet of piping buried as deep as three feet. Three, 1800-gallon tanks can operate down to 10 degrees below zero, allow-ing the animals to be on pasture all winter.

Bale-grazing is done on the rotated pastures when the grazing season is completed and the weather not too harsh. In winter, 800-pound bales (mostly purchased) are fed in a separate sacrifice pasture located in a wooded ravine near the barn that of-fers protection from the winds.

Conservation is a large part of the

equation here at Bobolink Dairy, which is named for the endangered grassland bird that requires that fields be left in grass until after its nesting season ends in late summer. Jonathan tries to delay mowing pastures until after July 15.

Cheeses follow the seasonsJonathan and his employees pro-

duce about half a dozen raw milk cheeses ranging from soft-ripened varieties aged the 60-day minimum, to harder varieties produced in the fall and aged about a year in an on-site artificial cave.

The selection follows the seasons closely based on available forages, lactation stage and sales fluctuations.

One key to Bobolink’s success is

that the cheese moves. “We’ve always sold every bit of cheese we’re able to make,” Jonathan says.

Production in 2017 totaled nearly 10,000 lbs. Jonathan makes cheese with his two-person staff six days a week during the milking season, al-though Jonathan says he is away from the cheese house on Fridays while traveling to New York City’s Union Square Cheese Market.

The Whites have been turning away wholesale accounts, but as they grow they may be adding marketing channels. The plan here is controlled growth. The milking herd is being expanded slowly, and they believe it can nearly double before the land’s carrying capacity is reached.

Bobolink sells cheeses retail

through several farmers markets, their on-farm store and online.

Located in northwestern New Jersey, Bobolink is within range of a large population of people interested in unique and quality foods.

The majority of their customers are local or live near the farmers markets. “We have very loyal customers from Philadelphia and New York,” Jona-than notes. “We also sell to a number of fine restaurants in New York City, around the region and, to a lesser extent, nationally.”

Diversification helpsThe specialty cheese business has

changed greatly since the Whites started their venture, with much more competition reported in the market-place and bigger companies now in-volved. Jonathan warns that mediocre cheeses are plentiful.

However, he believes there is room in the market for grass farmers who can produce premium-quality cheeses in quantities large enough to cover fixed costs.

But even the Whites view their cheeses as being just one avenue for adding value on this rugged farm.

Nina’s Bakehouse breads, baked in a wood-fired oven on site, are made with regional heritage grains and other local ingredients and sold

Bobolink Dairy and Bakehouse

Page 4 December 2018

If you have a question you’d like addressed, contact Graze.

advisorsThis month’s question:

What’s your mineral program?

Olaf Haugen

Eric Sheffer

Eric Sheffer milks cows on a certified organic dairy near Hoosick Falls, New York.

Our mineral program has always been quite simple. We have always em-ployed nutritionists, and mixing the macro and micronutrients in a ration has been one of the tasks we expected of them. In the conventional world we worked with a grazing-focused nutritionist employed by the mill. Now that we are organic we work with an independent person, so the cost of the miner-als essentially pays his fee. While there are pros and cons to both systems, it is all about the cost of feed and minerals and who you are working with. Both systems have been fine.

We have always utilized a partial or total mixed ration for feeding the lactat-ing herd, so getting the proper minerals into them has been quite easy. We typi-cally have the mineral pack mixed into either the protein or energy portion of the grain mix, with what’s in the pack varying with the seasons. It is then mixed with baleage and fed to the herd twice a day, which gives the less aggressive cows the opportunity to compete.

When we were conventionally farming we had corn silage in the ration to carry the grain/mineral mix during the grazing season. This is something we absolutely miss from a feeding efficiency standpoint, although baleage does work to carry the grain/mineral and provides some fiber at the same time. Dur-ing calving and times of diet changes we often offer free-choice salt and trace mineral blocks to the herd as a backup, and we have found that these animals

Cattle are fed mineral in a daily grain mix or silage basically from day one all the way up through the milking herd. Young calves are fed 3-4 lbs. of a grain mix daily, and in this mix is a heifer mineral. As the calves get bigger and more silage is fed, the mineral might be included in the silage mix instead of the grain.

For the lactating animals, I have done it all in a grain mix in the parlor, half in a grain mix and half in the silage, and all in the silage with no grain mix in the parlor. I don’t think it matters how the mineral gets delivered into the ani-mal, just that the animal is getting proper supplementation.

For calves and heifers I use a pre-packaged, bagged mineral that is the most economical mineral for this class at 7-8 cents/head/day. For the lactating cows I work with a nutritionist to blend a custom mix. This is still a very simple mix, but we may tailor it with additional bi-carb, calcium or other small tweaks depending on the commodities I’m feeding, as different feedstuffs can require slightly different mineral packages to balance their requirements. Lactating mineral cost is roughly 30 cents/head/day.

Dry cows and heifers are fed a different mineral specific for dry cows. Hay targeted for dry cows one month prior to calving is sampled using wet chemis-try to determine mineral needs. Potassium levels are closely watched, as high-potassium feeds prior to calving will interact with calcium and can contribute to milk fever cases.

In all classes of animals, I make sure trace mineral blocks or loose mineral are available. This is more of an indicator of mineral need rather than a supple-ment. If cattle are attacking the blocks, I check the amount of mineral we are feeding and contact the nutritionist to see if we might need to adjust the mix. I have used strictly loose mineral for yearling heifers on pasture with satisfactory results, and I think this can work. However, if I am feeding a grain or silage supplement, I prefer to deliver the mineral that way.

For lactating cows, I think it would be difficult to provide enough complete

will utilize them if needed. It is a fairly simple and inexpensive Band-Aid. While the heifers don’t necessarily require grain, we feed small amounts to

help carry their minerals. More important, the feeding provides an opportunity to check on them an extra time each day out on grass. For all ages of heifers we use the cow grain we have on site. Not hauling in heifer-specific commodities provides huge cost savings and keeps everything that much simpler. We use salt and trace mineral blocks for heifers at certain points of the year as well. Mostly this is in times of very cold weather or when the spring grass is so good that the heifers won’t eat much of the grain.

The big lesson we have learned is that going cheap on minerals can be costly. During our organic transition we tried buying in bulk mineral that we mixed ourselves. This system works great and can save money if you stick to the nutri-tion program. However, during the financial stress of the transition we reduced the amount of mineral from the program to save some money. We very quickly learned that this is not a good idea in any way. Milk slowly dropped until we put the mineral back in, and then it quickly recovered. This was certainly a clear enough relationship for me to be sold on the fact that listening to nutrition programs when it comes to minerals and vitamins is the only way to maximize milk production and growth rates.

While we currently carry all of our minerals with grain, there have been plenty of times in the past when we carried dry cow mineral with hay or bale-age and never had an issue. Whether mixing with forage or topdressing the mineral, in my mind the key is to ensure all animals have the ability to get the proper intake consistently. Feeding strategy and head space are crucial.

supplementation by free-choice without a carrier. I know that if I run out of mineral, it takes only about a day before the milk cows are glued to the mineral blocks. However, I think a very small amount (1/2 lb.) of a palatable carrier

(dried distillers grains, dry molasses, soyhulls or cracked corn) would work well.

Overall, if I stick to this mineral program I seem to have very few problems. It is when I get complacent about getting enough minerals or the proper miner-als to the cattle that I tend to see more problems at calving (milk fever, retained placenta, mastitis), or breeding issues in heifers due to slow overall growth or just not properly cycling at breeding age.

One group of heifers saw very poor breeding results (less than 80% bred for the spring window) even though I thought as a group they looked to be in better condition and bigger than other heifer classes. The one difference in raising those heifers was less

mineral fed through the prior winter. Dry cow supplementation is another area where improper supplementation will show up very quickly. I have learned that calving is made easy or difficult 30 days before it starts. Keeping dry cows properly fed and supplied with minerals will dramatically reduce issues at calv-ing.

I think a successful mineral program is shown in breeding rates, low vet bills and overall herd health. These factors can be hard to trace directly back to min-eral supplementation, but I think this is one expense that has a definite positive return on investment.

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David Erb

Olaf Haugen milks cows near Canton, Minnesota.

Philip WitmerWhen I review our farm accounting, it surprises me how much mineral

spending can add up to in a year. A while back as a follow-up to see if our costs

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Our mineral program is simple. We mix Crystal Creek’s Pasture Trace Min-eral with our grain ration (8-10 lbs. of grain) year-round for the milking cows. Also year-round, we offer the dairy herd a 50/50 mix of Redmond Conditioner and Redmond Mineral Salt with extra selenium free-choice in a mineral box.

We find it interesting that while they hardly touch the free-choice minerals throughout the grazing season, they really start licking the mineral box after

we’ve been feeding stored forages for a couple of weeks. We feed a substantial amount of minerals though the winter months. This pattern has been consistent for the past 10 years or more. That differs from our first six to eight years of farming when they continuously licked at the free-choice box year-round.

Bred heifers get some minerals through the little bit of grain they consume, and we offer them a Redmond Mineral salt block at all times. Our weanling to yearling calves get a trace mineral pack with their grain, and we offer the 50/50 Redmond salt and Conditioner free choice.

This system is working very well, as for the past eight or more years our hoof problems, pinkeye and other such problems have been very minimal compared to our early years in farming. I should add that we once free-choice fed lots of kelp, vitamins and calcium with very vague to minimal results. Over time we dropped these from the mineral box. We do top-dress our grain with Organic Pro-Min from TLC Animal Nutrition. This seems to work as a probiotic that helps to balance the dairy herd’s rumen health.

In the end, the best mineral pack we have found is a well-balanced soil that produces a quality forage.

David Erb milks cows on a certified organic dairy near Brinkhaven, Ohio.

I have never put a huge emphasis on minerals. I’ve been happy just feeding white salt most of the time. I currently feed red salt (trace mineral) free choice most of the year, and add mag ox to the salt in January-March. For weaned calves I feed a Ru-mensin mineral mixed with feed for their first year. I also put out free choice magnesium tubs just before calving. These eliminated milk fevers, as I went from 5-10 cases per year to none. Coccidiosis had been a big issue with the weaned calves, but the Rumensin eliminated the problems.

I’m convinced that for my farm, none of the mineral mixes or even trace minerals help. The red salt is essentially the same price as white locally, so

I figure it couldn’t hurt. I haven’t noticed the fly reduction mineral reducing my fly problems, but I know some people swear by it.

Page 6 December 2018

Tamara Scully is a writer based in Columbia, New Jersey.

continued from page 5

Advisors

Grassfed cheesecontinued from page 3

Philip Witmer milks cows on a certified organic dairy near Dayton, Virginia.

as a rustic, gourmand complement to Jonathan’s cheeses.

The Whites have a small laying flock in addition to offering grassfed beef. They’ve begun raising feeder pigs on a parcel of wooded land, feed-ing a diet of bakery scraps and whey as a means of profitably utilizing the “waste” products from their value-added enterprises.

The farm is open for tours, cheese-making and bread-baking classes, as well as cooking and charcuterie (prepared meat products) classes. On-farm dinners are also scheduled. Smoked meats and charcuterie are sold in the farm store.

Farm tours are offered weekends year-round at a small fee, with visitors led through the pastures and produc-tion facilities and treated to product samples. “Agritourism is a big key” to the farm’s success, Jonathan acknowl-edges.

Modern marketing efforts include an online store for nationwide sales of bread, meat and cheese. The Whites maintain a website, an active Face-

book page, an Instagram account filled with photos and a Youtube channel. They are actively advocating for a farm trail system in the region, complete with signs and promotional materials that would guide visitors from farm to farm.

So there is plenty of work to do here. Three employees help with the livestock and cheese making, eight others are employed in the bakery and the farm store, and another four work on mail orders, farmers markets and other events.

Nina manages the bakery, Jonathan the cheese making, and an operations manager keeps everything running smoothly. Jonathan and Nina handle all of the marketing, including the social media portion.

The Whites say that mimicking nature’s rhythms and ways are the foundation of their formula for earn-ing a living through grass-based farm-ing. Their goal is to provide nutritious food while helping, rather than hurt-ing, the Earth.

were out of line, I price checked a different line of organic dairy mineral. When I calculated feeding at the recommended rates, albeit without much informa-tion on guaranteed analysis, I quickly deduced that my mineral expenses would triple. While I feel confident that vitamins and minerals are an important part of our preventative herd health program, I doubt that our herd’s health could improve enough to justify such an increase in expenses.

That said, we do splurge on a few fancy ingredients. Our lactating cow mineral includes biotin, with the aim of improving hoof health. We feed organic or chelated trace minerals from the pre-fresh ration through breeding and then summer heat. These are to boost both hoof health and fertility, lower SCC and improve immune response.

When an ingredient isn’t necessary due to the stage of lactation or because pasture provides it, we drop it from the ration. For example, this year the price of vitamins went through the roof. Once our cows were mainly on grass this spring we dropped vitamins A, D and E out of the mineral package, and saved $30 a bag until this fall when cows went onto more silage and stored feeds. Why pay extra for something the cows are getting enough of with sun-shine and fresh grass?

While the lactating herd is supplemented minerals through the partial TMR, our heifers and dry cows just get it free-choice mixed with salt to regulate in-take. Our dry stock mineral is less fancy and doesn’t change summer to winter whether they’re grazing or consuming stored feed. We have a covered mineral tub mounted in an old front tire from a 4WD tractor. When the heifers see the ATV dragging the mineral feeder, it is their cue to follow along to a new pas-ture.

Calves have the mineral mixed in with their grain. It gets force-fed this way for the first spring and summer. In the fall, once they are moved onto silage and hay the mineral is available free choice. Young calves are offered kelp at select times. Due to the cost, we are judicious in its use. Diatomaceous earth is included in the calf feed through the first grazing season.

Our mineral program hasn’t changed much over the years. While a couple of bells and whistles have been added, I can’t say that we’ve seen night and day results. I think the basic mineral package is the most important. It is obvi-

ous when it is lacking in the diet, because free-choice consumption goes way up. When grass is of good quality, the mineral seldom needs to be replaced in the feeder. I guess that is a good place to start with a grazing mineral program.

Andy Cooper

Andy Cooper grazes dairy cows near Morrison, Tennessee.

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Page 7OTA seeks organic checkoff ideas

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The Organic Trade Association is asking people involved in the organic industry to submit programming ideas for a new voluntary checkoff the organization is launching.

OTA, the trade group for organic processors and marketers, said the six-month period for submitting ideas “is an important opportunity to weigh in and help shape this voluntary pro-gram at the start of the process.”

OTA’s effort to enact a mandatory organic research, promotion and edu-cation program was derailed earlier this year when the Trump Administra-tion announced it would not imple-ment proposed language for creating the program due to disagreements

Organic milk sales declined 1.2% in September compared to the same month in 2017, according to USDA estimates.

The September performance put year-to-date organic sales just 0.03% above last year’s performance.

Organic whole milk sales rose 1.0% in September, but were 4.6% higher for January-September 2018 compared to the same period last year. Reduced fat (2%) sales climbed 2.4% and 4.0% respectively.

But all of the lower-fat fluid milk products registered sales declines in

California voters last month overwhelmingly approved a mea-sure requiring that all eggs sold in the state come from cage-free hens by 2022.

Proposition 12 also bans the sale of pork and veal in California from farm animals raised in cages that don’t meet the new minimum size requirements.

That means the Golden State’s new rules will apply to farmers na-tionwide whose eggs, veal and pork are sold in California.

Supporters say the measure is a big step toward more humane farm-ing practices, while opponents say it is misleading and maintains cruel practices for animals. Dubbed the Prevention of Cruelty to Farm Ani-

within the sector. So in September OTA announced

its plan to launch a voluntary program and formed a steering committee to lead the effort.

“By putting our heads together, and bringing our ideas to the table, the organic industry will continue to be at the center of the good food movement,” said steering committee member Melissa Hughes, an execu-tive at CROPP/Organic Valley.

All ideas must be contributed elec-tronically. E-mails should be sent to GROideas@ota.com with the submis-sions embedded or attached. Name, location and business affiliation should be part of a submission.

September, with sales sharply lower for the first nine months of 2018.

USDA’s Dairy Market News is conducting price surveys for direct sales of organic cow dairy products available to consumers at farms and online.

USDA’s survey for the first half of November found a wide variation in pricing. For instance, 8-ounce mild Cheddar pricing ranged from $4.14 to $8.50.

For more information, go to https://www.ams.usda.gov/market-news/dairy-organic-market-news

Organic milk sales drop in September

mals Act, Proposition 12 specifies how much floor space farmers need to give each animal.

“This vote is a massive blow against industrial animal agricul-ture’s abusive confinement sys-tems,” said Josh Balk, vice president at the Humane Society of the United States, which sponsored and fi-nanced the measure.

It requires that, starting in 2020, calves confined for production have at least 43 square feet of usable floor space, while breeding pigs be given at least 24 square feet of floor space in their pens starting in 2022. Starting in 2020, egg-laying hens must be been given 1 square foot of floor space each on the way to being cage-free by 2022.

Archer Daniels Midland Company has reached an agreement with a California biotechnology company for developing and commercializing “animal free” dairy proteins.

San Francisco-based Perfect Day says the two companies will scale-up Perfect Day’s fermentation process for producing dairy proteins from non-animal sources. Perfect Day says the first joint project will employ ADM’s existing fermentation infra-structure to produce a whey protein.

Perfect Day employs genetic en-gineering, primarily with soy-based materials, in its effort to duplicate dairy proteins, but has struggled with taste and texture issues along with production costs. Perfect Day said the partnership means that its products will soon be on the market, adding, “We are forging relationships with food and beverage companies, big and small, that are excited about the new products and experiences our protein will enable.”

California vote has big implications

ADM to make non-dairy proteins

December 2018Page 8

Winifred Hoffman and her family graze, milk and sell genetics from their Illinois herd that was established in 1936.

Joel McNairEditor/Publisher

is published 10 times each year — monthly except for July and September — by No Bull Press, L.L.C., 5792 Alpine Road, Brooklyn, WI, 53521-9457. Subscrip-tion price: $30 per year. Periodical postage paid at Brooklyn, WI, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Graze, P.O. Box 48, Belleville, WI 53508-0048. ISSN: 1940-6185

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‘by graziers, for graziers’

Moving beyond rugged individualismJoel McNair

Battered by weird weather. Blud-geoned by poor commodity prices. Watching nervously as factory farms flex their muscles, traditional whole-sale buyers encourage the flexing, and smaller-scale farms lose their markets.

Disappointed by the sudden shut-off of organic as a promising outlet for alternative dairies. And good help is still hard to find and finance.

Yes, many Graze readers are deal-ing with tough times as 2018 comes to a close. The wholesale red meat markets are sort of OK, and I guess that milk prices have been worse — at least for short periods of time.

For those of you who grow and sell it, organic grain prices are a little bet-ter. Many well-run and well-equitized, grazing-based operations are doing well enough to at least get by.

But we are now nearly four full years into a price trough for conven-tional milk, with no obvious end to this slog. We are soon to enter our third year of drastically lower prices for organic milk, with production quotas and contract terminations add-ing to the pain.

Almost all of us have seen worse for relatively short periods. But this time the bad times just never seem to end. This time, it is a siege. This time, even the organic dairy market alternative is facing serious long-term demand issues.

In the past six months I’ve wit-nessed more grass-farming friends and acquaintances sell (or announce

plans to sell) the cows than in all of the previous 18 years of publish-ing this magazine. The majority are topnotch operators who tired of the battle.

For many people, the toughest part of this is not seeing any light at the end of a tunnel that has already been much longer than most might have imagined.

Eventually the light will shine; it always does. But who or what will lift the darkness?

Not Uncle Sam, who is totally be-holden to an agribusiness sector that cares everything about commodity production, and almost nothing about who produces the commodities.

Agribusiness owns the politicians who will not be enacting any form of supply management that would lead to higher commodity prices and lower margins for those beyond the farm gate. Ain’t happening, folks.

Same goes for the cooperatives, “middlemen” and retail chains: they aren’t going to suddenly take less and give you more. While many co-ops are rife with inefficiencies, in general the path from farm gate to super-market shelf and restaurant plate is a smooth and tight-margin highway. Just ask the direct marketers who

have to compete with these folks.In dairy, agribusiness views the

laborious and expensive process of procuring milk from smaller farms as

being the biggest ineffi-ciency in the entire food chain.

This is why Walmart builds its own fluid plant

with a goal of contracting directly with mega-farms. It is why Aurora Organic and its vertically integrated system of large-scale farms and dedi-cated processing facilities is so attrac-tive to Walmart, Costco and such.

In other words, these guys think you’re a nuisance. Any organiza-tion that markets nationally is at an automatic disadvantage in procuring milk from far-flung networks of small farms.

Prices will improveBut times will get better. For dairy,

I expect some short-term price benefit either next year or in 2020 when enough farms sell the cows to cause at least a small shortage of milk that would bump conventional prices a couple of bucks and open up organic milk markets a bit.

Bigger bumps will have to wait until the next broad-reaching mid-western drought that sends grain and forage prices skyward as in 2012-13.

This will likely pinch livestock margins for a year or two before pro-viding a profitable year along the lines of 2014. I fully expect this to happen within 10 years given the extreme weather patterns of recent times.

Of course neither of these old and discouraging standbys for creating higher prices offer much in the way of real optimism, given their temporary nature and the reality that the better times are the result of so much pain and suffering.

So what does offer optimism?Our customers. Only our custom-

ers.This has been talked of to the point

of redundancy, and I won’t further belabor the point. I prefer to discuss some of the issues and tactics as they relate to small-scale producers who want to reach these customers.

The optimistic part of this is that the American food business is splin-tering into countless subsectors that cannot possibly be served entirely by conglomerates. This is based on the reality that a growing number of American customers are willing to spend more money for food — if the particular food product has charac-teristics and perceived benefits that make the extra expenditure worth-while to the individual customer.

Virtually all of the research states

Page 9

In addition to publishing Graze, Joel McNair grazes dairy heifers on a small farm in southern Wisconsin.

People want to feel good about food.

that there is more emotion than logic to such decisions. While you can argue whether things like taste and fatty acid ratios are emotion instead of logic, there isn’t really any question here regarding animal welfare and “family farms”.

More and more, people want to feel good about their food.

Most Graze readers check off almost all of the boxes for meeting these emotional and quasi-logical desires. There is opportunity here.

The major problem is that most of you are lousy at tapping into this po-tentially lucrative market. Obviously a major problem is that most of you are selling through companies and cooperatives with priorities that may differ from yours.

The problem with “rugged”The lesser known problem in our

little corner of the world is the mis-taken impression that the only way to bypass this corrupt system is to strike off on your own and do everything yourself.

John and Holly Arbuckle offered some interesting thoughts about this in last month’s Graze (“What to do if ‘local’ isn’t cutting it”).

One was that in their own case, “Our mindset of being rugged in-dividuals who can ‘do it all’ had to change.”

Another: “Small farms need to stop seeing each other as the competition.

The real competition comes from the corporate farms that would love to see us stay small and sell exclusively at the farmers market, biting our lips each time someone asks us how the farm is doing.”

While I will offer no prognostica-tions for the future of the Arbuckles’ Singing Prairie Farms/Roam Sticks marketing venture, their points are worth considering.

The part about small farms not competing with each other is of course older than the Capper-Volstead Act that legalized cooperative bar-gaining. Of course farmers tend to sour on co-ops when they inevitably stray from the precepts of their found-ers.

And many feel they’re better off doing their own thing because some guru with books and sky-high speak-ing fees told them that’s the case. Some of them probably are, but most are not.

Whether or not we are always talk-ing cooperatives here, successfully addressing this issue — labeled “ag in the middle” by the academics — is among the most pressing we face. We need to figure out better ways to get our products from farm gate to dinner plate.

And we need to do it really well, because each and every day mega-corporate America is seeking new ways to tap the demand of customers who should be yours.

While new cooperative efforts may take off, most likely this kind of thing will happen when dynamic individu-als — some with mud on their boots, others not — come up with brilliant ideas and seek networks of farms to supply the production that meets the specific needs of those ideas.

These will be premium wholesale markets akin to organic, but hopefully with fewer opportunities for corporate America to bastardize the deal.

Of course premium wholesale provides no guarantees of profit. (Does anything?) Indeed, farms serv-ing these markets too often are quite inefficient. The nascent grassfed dairy sector is rife with inefficiencies.

Which is why the concept of farmer networks can be of value on the pro-duction side as well. Organic Valley and Maple Hill Creamery are among the marketing companies building producer networks within their grass-fed dairy sectors, and I would expect many newcomers to the grassfed and grazing-based sectors to form similar efforts.

The blue skyI’ve discussed this before, but let’s

do a little blue-sky thinking here.

What if a grassfed or grassfed/or-ganic company wanted to take steps toward ensuring a cost-effective, reli-able and high-quality supply of milk within a relatively tight geographic area?

What if a group of investors, perhaps including the company itself, gained access to a series of farms suited to such a program?

What if some number of highly skilled grass farmers managed these farms under terms that included good salaries and opportunities to accumu-late equity?

Could this not work if the farm-ers were willing to forgo some of the traditional “rugged individualist” thinking of traditional agri-culture?

You are not aloneSure it could. Already there are

examples, and for our purposes they do not have to be like today’s conven-tional large-scale systems for growing chickens and hogs under contract.

We need new paradigms in both marketing and production. The seeds for both have been planted. Will they germinate, and will we successfully harvest the crop?

A goodly share of the future of small-scale livestock agriculture de-pends upon that answer.

December 2018Page 10

Wet weather grazingcontinued from page 1

Percent increases in the amount of precipitation falling in very heavy events (top 1% of all daily events) from 1958 through 2012. This measures the changes from the beginning of this period to the end. (Source: NOAA, National Climate Assessment)

Spring of 2016 started out wet, finances were real tight, and the hay supply had dwindled to almost noth-ing. Most of the pastures were too wet for the cows to be out. Our heavy, clay-based soils compact really easy when wet and soggy.

But that spring there were about four acres of ground firm enough to get equipment on them for making some early baleage. Providentially, we received two sunny days starting May 10.

The baleage was terrific. The cows inhaled it, and milk production increased. As the weather dried we returned to grazing the remainder of the pastures just like we had in previ-ous years, with the same results: a lot of poor quality forage.

The exception was that four-acre piece. I was able to mow it June 9 and again July 9, and it had good regrowth before the really hot/dry weather set in.

About that time, the light bulb came on.

Spring of 2017 saw another cool, wet start. From April 24 to May 31 our farm received 10 to 12 inches of rain.

Taking what I learned in 2016, us-

ing temporary fencing I divided the 25 acres closest to the barn into about 13 paddocks.

The lactating cows were turned into the small paddocks for just a couple of hours at a time. Each time the cows went out, they were in a different pad-dock. The rest of the day they were in the barn.

That left about 52 acres of pas-ture ground to make into hay. We got a break in the rain starting May 19, and within a couple of days the fields were firm enough get a tractor and baler on the fields. We rolled up several hundred bales of wet hay and wrapped them in plastic.

Up to two round bales was fed to the 50 milk cows on a daily basis and that, along with what they were con-suming on pasture, took care of most of their dry matter needs for about a month.

The 52 acres was cut again about June 20 and made well over 100, 1,500-pound round bales of really nice second cutting. July 9 would be our last rainfall until late October.

After the second cutting was off, the 52 acres was set up for grazing. The cows had good grazing there all through the hot weather of July and early August.

We ran out of good grass in the

middle of August and had to resort to feeding more baleage in the barn, but the management change allowed us to not buy hay until the middle of December.

Thus we were able to provide our herd with far more high-quality forage compared to if we had stayed with our traditional practice of waiting to cut

hay until after all of the pastures had been grazed.

Spring 2018 started out the same as the previous two years, wet and cool. So we managed the same way as in 2017.

It was a bit drier this year, which allowed us to start making hay a few days earlier. Hay was cut during the

Changes in very heavy precipitation1958-2012

It takes time, effort and energy.

Page 11second week of May, in early June and the first week of July.

And this past summer we were on the receiving end of some timely rains, which kept the cows grazing and us making hay off several of the paddocks even after they had been grazed more than once. As the sum-mer heat started to wane, the cows were allowed larger paddocks and less time in the barn.

So, what differences are we seeing? While the early season forages looked vegetative under our old way of man-aging, I guess we didn’t notice how selectively the cows were grazing.

They were leaving plenty of plants for shooting seed heads. Those pad-docks were of poor quality by the first of June.

While they were mowed and baled once the cows were moved to a higher-quality paddock, often this came too late in the season to allow for good regrowth.

The discbine does a much better job of clipping off all of the plant. Making hay off those paddocks twice from early May to early June keeps the cool season grasses in a vegetative state, allowing for much higher qual-ity for both grazing and hay later on

in the summer.Cows will consume a large amount

of pasture in a short period of time if the sward is dense.

Once they were trained to move, the cattle ate aggressively even with temperatures going into the 90s and higher humidity levels. After three hours of grazing they were ready to come back to the barn, drink huge

Eric Grim milks cows near New London, Ohio.

amounts of water, have access to sweet-smelling baleage, lie in shady sand stalls and chew their cuds.

It takes time, effort and energy to graze cattle this way. There is more manure to haul from the barns, bale-age to feed, sand to buy, and bigger electricity bills for the barn ventila-tion fans.

But we have more tons of higher quality feed going into the winter, and that is worth a lot.

December 2018Page 12

Using boluses to tackle cobalt deficiencyJanet McNally

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Previously I wrote about my experience with cobalt deficiency, a little known trace mineral deficiency that occurs sporadically around the country.

In recent years my lamb gains had declined despite managing the same genetics. Most sheep exhibited a kind of dermatitis on the ears and some-

times on the face. Some had weepy eyes.

The most emaciated animals had a dark, watery stool but were unrespon-sive to treatment for coccidiosis. The affected sheep appeared anemic as if they had heavy parasite loads, but fecal tests showed nothing significant and drenching brought no relief.

It would be easy to conclude that our genetics were not up to snuff for grass-based lamb production. But I knew this was not the case, as just before this they performed extremely well for us and others.

Tackling the problem After limited improvement try-

ing cobalt licks and B12 injections, I decided to administer slow-release cobalt boluses.

This spring, 45 days before lamb-ing, I gave each pregnant ewe one 10-gram bolus containing 3,000 mg. of cobalt in the form of cobalt oxide. The bolus is a hard pellet encased in a plastic capsule that is best adminis-tered with a calf bolus gun.

While shopping for a source of cobalt, I noted that the UK and New Zealand have slow-release boluses that also contain iodine and selenium, which would be perfect for us.

However, these products were not approved for use in the U.S. Santa Cruz Animal Health also has a cobalt/copper bolus, but our farm is already high in copper, so I had to stick to a cobalt-only product.

I gave every lamb one bolus at weaning. Dosing the smaller lambs proved to be tricky, as they were more adept at regurgitating the bolus.

Six lambs later showed symptoms of cobalt deficiency, and my guess is that they spat out their boluses. The difference between these six lambs and the rest of the flock was like night and day.

In addition to the bolus, the sheep received a trace mineral mix from the local farm store that contained cobalt along with salt, selenium, iodine, manganese, magnesium, calcium and phosphorus. Santa Cruz Animal Health recommends not providing any other source of cobalt when using their cobalt bolus.

The trial was a resounding success. From the start the lambs were health-ier. Compared to last year they were 13 lbs. heavier at 100 days of age,

with some top-gaining lambs weigh-ing more than 100 lbs. These lambs had more robust skeletal growth, with more width and larger bones. Ram lambs had noticeably larger testicles.

Most interestingly, with the excep-tion of the lambs mentioned earlier, the dermatitis on the ears was gone from the entire flock. Those six lambs also had reduced growth and the tear-ing eyes typical of a cobalt deficiency.

I have fielded several questions on this issue since the earlier article.

Why haven’t many people heard of cobalt deficiency? Modern mineral supplementation (trace-mineral salts) and feed rations that include fortifica-tion with trace minerals and vitamins have limited the problem (and knowl-edge of the problem) among confine-ment flocks and nutrition experts.

A typical midwestern farm flock will feed a fortified protein pellet along with free-choice trace mineral, thus providing at least two sources of cobalt. Some flocks even add a third supplement at key times such as breeding and lambing.

But in a grass-based flock, the free-choice mineral may be the sole source of added trace minerals. We know that free-choice intakes can vary widely between individual sheep.

In my own situation, wetter weather in recent years led to rapid grass growth and greater potential for cobalt deficiency.

I had also changed the trace min-eral program due to my arthritic back. Previously I used a high-quality prod-uct that obviously did a good job, but required lifting and mixing multiple 50-pound bags. Clearly the farm store product I switched to was not doing an adequate job.

Does cobalt deficiency affect other species? While it affects cattle, sheep and goats, sheep seem to have the most trouble.

Where has cobalt deficiency been observed? A lot of places.

The third edition of Jensen and

Page 13

continued on page 16

Janet McNally

This lamb has the weepy eyes and dermatitis that are symptoms of cobalt deficiency.

Swift’s Diseases of Sheep, notes that cobalt deficiency is observed in “por-tions of New England, and the lower Atlantic coastal plain. Areas of New England, northern New York, north-ern Michigan, and parts of the central plains are moderately deficient.”

In a Goat World article, Larry L. Berger of the University of Illinois says that in addition to the already mentioned states, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri and Nebraska also produce feeds low in cobalt.

The fourth edition of Ensminger’s Sheep and Wool Science reports co-balt deficiency in Florida, and in parts of Michigan, Wisconsin, New Hamp-shire, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New York and Alberta, Canada.

According to The Mineral Require-ments of Grazing Ruminants put out by the New Zealand Society of Animal Production, “Historically the disease has probably existed since man domesticated animals and con-fined their grazing habits.”

This is an interesting point, as I now use a very intensive and con-trolled version of grazing. The same text points out that “soils from acid Igneous rock, such as granite, gener-ally lack Co while those of basaltic origin have adequate Co. Sedimentary and volcanic soils often reflect the Co content of the parent rock.”

It goes on to say “cobalt con-tent in the soil can be decreased by prolonged weathering, leaching, and

intensive cropping. Plants growing on waterlogged soils appear to have Co levels many times higher than the same soil types with good drainage. Other minerals can also affect plant uptake. Manganese and Fe have been reported to reduce CO uptake. Nickel also has been reported to be a com-petitive element. Liming, by reducing soil acidity, also reduces CO uptake by plants.”

Another question: How do you know if you need to supplement cobalt?

First, are your animals showing any symptoms of reduced growth, anemia as in appearing to be suffering from parasites, tearing, chronic scours and, for cattle, dull harsh hair coat? If so, do they respond to an injection of 1 mg. vitamin B12 (hydroxycobalamin) for lambs, or 2 mg. for calves?

Cobalt’s one and only function is to be used by rumen microbes to manufacture B12, an essential vitamin for energy metabolism. Without it, deficient animals can basically starve even if they are up to their ears in quality forages.

According to The Mineral Require-ments of Grazing Ruminants, here are some other ways to check for defi-ciency, from poorest to best:• Soil test. Soils with less than 2 mg./kg. total Co are deficient, as are those with less than 0.25 mg./kg. “extract-able soil Co”.• Forage test. Pastures containing 0.11

to 0.08 mg. Co per kg. of dry matter or greater will meet the Co require-ments for sheep and cattle, respec-tively.• Testing blood serum B12 status is a better way to look for a cobalt de-ficiency. Sheep should have greater than 370 pmol/l B12.• Take liver samples. A variety of factors can raise serum cobalt to artifi-cially high levels, so the best way to test for Co status is through a liver sample. Sheep and cattle should have greater than 220 nmol B12 per kg. fresh tissue. Sheep with 110 to 220 nmol/kg. B12 have marginal Co sta-tus, while cattle with 75 to 220 nmol are marginal. Sheep with less than

110nmol are usually deficient, as are cattle with less than 74nmol/kg. B12 in the liver. L. Berger states that while there is no definitive stored cobalt values for the liver in goats, a value of .19 ppm B12 is considered indicative of sufficient cobalt.

Note that the symptoms of cobalt deficiency are very similar to those of copper deficiency, and both can be deficient on the same farm. So testing for copper status is an important alter-native diagnosis.

While cobalt can be toxic, tolerance for high levels of cobalt is much bet-ter than it is for copper. Unfortunately

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Page 14 December 2018

Soil’s 3M: microbial mineral mining

This grain of sand has been drilled into and dissolved by fungi.

Last month we learned the wonders of the internal symbiosis of plants and their microbes, both bacteria and fungi. It is now clear that this pro-cess is central in how plants take up nutrients.

But where do the nutrients come from in the first place, and how do they get there?

First a little context, as in order to know what a plant might need, it helps to understand what they’re made of and what has to come from soil.

Using corn as an example, once you remove moisture about 97% the plant is made up of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen. The carbon and oxygen come from the air, shown as blue in the accompanying chart.

Nitrogen also comes from the air, but by way of the soil, having first been transformed by microbes in the soil into a form the plant can use (blue/brown hash in the chart). Hydrogen comes from the water, and thus also by a path originating from the air but by way of the roots (green).

Everything else actually comes from the solid soil material itself

(brown). Elementally, it’s a long list of stuff that adds up to only about 3% of the plant’s mass.

But without that parent soil, the plant mass cannot be built. Each element is an important part of some compound involved in a metabolic process that allows the plant to grow.

Since plants grew quite well before humans invented synthetic fertilizers, they were obviously able to obtain these nutrients from the parent soil material. But how?

Plants feed their friendsIn a fascinating study from earlier

this year (Zhalnina, 2018), we learned

that plants very intentionally “feed their friends.” This allows us to un-derstand that plants exude chemicals that impact everything from disease resistance, to pest defense, to the min-ing of specific nutrients.

Although the entire microbial pop-ulation array is critical for healthy soil function, a key foundational layer in this system is the role of mycorrhizal fungi that mine and extract nutrients from parent soil material and make it available to the plant.

To obtain these required nutrients, the plant exudes energy and other “friendly” compounds in the form of plant root exudates. These essentially act as instruction sets telling the mi-crobes what to go get and bring back. The exuded energy, usually some form of sugar, is what powers the microbes to do their work.

Fungi do the dirty work Fungi are the primary miners of

these minerals from the parent soil material, including solid rock. Fungi have evolved in close cooperation with most plants.

Some of the fungi (ectomycorhiz-zal) wrap themselves around the outside of plant roots, and some (endomycorhizzal) integrate directly

inside of the roots. Both modes create a nutrient highway for nutrients to flow from soil to plant.

Out at the tips of the fungal web (hyphae), a combination of mechani-cal pressure and chemical reactions in effect drill and dissolve their way into soil grains. The accompanying photo is of a grain of sand that has been drilled into and dissolved by fungi to extract nutrients for symbiotic plants (Landeweert, 2001).

So what you see is a picture of soil life sucking nutrients from the soil itself.

Here’s a dirty secret: Conventional soil tests do not actually measure

Elemental composition of cornBulk plant tissue

Data source: Troeh, F, et.al., Soils and Soil Fertility, 6th edition (2005)

By Allen Williams and Russ Conser

continued on page 16

Page 15

how much of a particular nutrient is present, only how much is presently available to a plant (or some approxi-mation thereof).

Above is a chart we made that measured both how much is available (orange) and how much was actu-ally present in the parent soil mate-rial (gray) in relation to how much the plant is estimated to need for its metabolism (100% of each).

You’ll notice that for all elements listed, what’s available is a small frac-tion of what’s present and needed for plant metabolism.

Fixing soil with biologyGiven that all of those excess nutri-

ents are already there, the solution is not to bring in more bags of fertilizer. The real solution comes with turning on your soil biology to go get them.

For that, we only have to look to

the five principles of soil health:• Minimize disturbance

• Keep the soil covered

• Increase plant diversity

• Keep living roots in the ground

• Integrate livestock

All five principles need to be put into practice to maxi-mize performance, including livestock integration.

Livestock aid the activi-ties of soil microbial life by churning the soil surface, stimulating the pulsing of plant growth, recycling nutri-ents through their manure and urine, and shedding microbes onto the soil from their saliva, hair coats, manure and urine.

In this way, what livestock

do above the ground mirrors what microbes do below the ground to make energy and nutri-ents available for plant uptake.

To drive this point home, we charted some data presented by Gabe Brown in his new book, Dirt to Soil, showing what happens when a farmer integrates all five principles into his practices.

For more than 10 years he has ap-plied zero fertilizer inputs beyond the livestock manure provided by actively grazing livestock. Yet Gabe has five to

ten times more nutrients available to his plants than three of his neighbors who might have adhered to some of the five principles, but not all (see below chart). Those folks are paying hard-earned money to add fertility to their lands, and they’ve got less to show for it!

Minerals don’t make up much of the mass of plants, but as even gardeners know, they are absolutely essential for plant growth. Why pay for nutrients, when a healthy micro-bial ecosystem will mine them from soil for free?

We think that the science of soil microbes is pretty cool, but the eco-nomics are even better. As Gabe likes

Cobaltcontinued from page 13

December 2018Page 16

A tributeMost of us have to

slowly weanourselves.

By Allen Williams

Mining minerals continued from page 15

to say, it’s time to stop signing the front of the check, and start signing the back!

Don’t go cold turkey!However, as a word of caution,

most farmers and graziers are dealing with an already degraded resource — their soil. To have functional, profit-able production, most of us will have to slowly wean ourselves off fertil-izers while building soil microbial populations to a truly functional level.

Stopping fertility inputs cold turkey may create a train wreck. Microbes will not mine enough minerals and feed enough of them to the plants if their populations are not of sufficient mass and array.

So, how can that happen? By dili-gently following the five Principles of Soil Health.

Through careful and persistent ob-servation you will “learn” the soil and develop strong intuitive senses that allow you to know when your soil is truly fully functional.

The five principles will get you there, and they are also what keeps you there. Abandon them at any point, and you will find your soil abandon-ing you.

Every so often someone comes along who defies all conventions and turns things on their ear; a truly unique person who does not care what the neighbors or the rest of the world thinks. Such people doggedly pursue what they believe to be right.

One of those people passed from this world in early November.Neil Dennis from Saskatchewan, Canada, taught us that we can do what

we did not believe possible. Neil was a simple man who enjoyed life. He initially resisted making

any changes on his farm, attending a grazing workshop only at his wife’s insistence, then spending the next several years trying to prove wrong the concepts that had been presented.

Instead, he discovered that they worked even better than what he’d heard. What Neil did changed his life and saved his farm. Such efforts takes real courage, real persistence, real fortitude.

Neil was humorous, self-deprecating, and an absolute joy to be around. His enthusiasm was infectious.

I distinctly remember a conversation with Neil about measuring plant brix. He had never done it before and wanted to know how to do it. I gave him a quick rundown, and he latched onto it like a newfound toy. Neil later called a number of times, all excited about his brix readings.

When “mob” grazing was all the rage, he pushed the boundaries beyond what most were willing to try, toying with stock densities that seemed to defy all logic by going above a million pounds of cattle per acre.

He was sneaky smart. He taught us that we can do far more than we believed possible with our grazing and its impact on the soil and the eco-system. He set a high bar that all of us should aspire to reach. And he did it all with grace, dignity and incredible humor.

We will miss Neil dearly, but his contributions to this world will con-tinue to impact us for many generations to come.

If you did not know Neil, I encourage you to watch the original Soil Carbon Cowboys film (www.soilcarboncowboys.com), which captures Neil and his personality incredibly well.

the symptoms of cobalt toxicity are the same as those for a deficiency. Liver concentrations of 0.02-0.17 mmol/kg. liver tissue or 1-10 mg co/kg. are associated with chronic toxic-ity in sheep.

I am not recommending that ev-eryone go out and start putting cobalt boluses in their animals. Far from it.

Most people reading this probably do not need more than is already pro-vided in their TM salt. Salt licks need to contain 120g of CoSo4 per ton

to supply enough cobalt in deficient areas.

But for those who have been experiencing the symptoms I have described, and who have ruled out parasites and copper deficiency, con-sider cobalt deficiency as a possible cause.

If you do have a deficiency, the boluses are a very economical way to go. For slightly more than $3 invested per ewe and her lambs, I realized a return of $36. One bolus can supply enough cobalt to last one to three years.

For more on this subject, check out:Zhalnina, Kateryna, et al. “Dy-

namic root exudate chemistry and microbial substrate preferences drive patterns in rhizosphere microbial community assembly.” Nature micro-biology 3.4 (2018): 470.

Landeweert, Renske, et al. “Link-ing plants to rocks: ectomycorrhizal fungi mobilize nutrients from min-erals.” Trends in ecology & evolu-tion 16.5 (2001): 248-254.

Brown, Gabe. Dirt to Soil: One Family’s Journey into Regenerative Agriculture.” Chelsea Green Publish-ing (2018).

Dr. Allen Williams is President of Grass Fed Insights, LLC and Partner in Soil Health Consultants, LLC based in Starkville, MS. He can be reached at 662-312-6826 and allenwilliams@joyce-farms.com. Russ Conser is co-founder of Standard Soil and works in regenerative agriculture. His contact information: 832-474-4764; russ.conser@standardsoil.com.

Janet McNally grazes sheep near Hinckley, Minnesota.

Page 17

Radishes, Keyline don’t solve all compaction woes

Study: more organic food = less cancer

A University of Vermont trial on five farms indicated that when it comes to solving compaction prob-lems and boosting soil health under pastures, both Keyline tillage and daikon radishes leave something to be desired.

The researchers noted that tillage, the traditional fix for compaction, may damage soils by upsetting the balance between bacteria and fungi in the soil.

More tillage means more bacte-ria and more bacteria feeders, and it also introduces more oxygen into the soil, which allows microorganisms to speed up decomposition of organic matter. Organic compounds bind soil particles, and soil structure is degrad-ed when they are lost.

Keyline plowing The Vermont research looked into

Keyline subsoil tillage, a method that follows field contours in cutting through compacted soil to improve infiltration and aeration while redis-tributing water from wet to dry areas within a pasture.

The plowing was done twice per year for two years. The radishes were seeded once per year for two years.

Farmers testing the practices were all dairy farmers, but represented different management styles and soil types. At least one had extremely rocky areas and steep slopes, allowing only the use of forage radishes, as me-chanical access was impossible. All of the soils were classified as loamy.

Keyline is a subsoil plowing prac-tice developed for dryland farming in Australia. It uses a specialized “Yeo-

mans” plow designed to minimally disturb the soil profile.

Typically having three to five shanks, the plow is recommended for use two to three times during the graz-ing season over a two-year period, for a total of four to six passes. Each pass is several inches deeper than the preceding one, ultimately reaching a depth of 20 inches or more.

The blades loosen soils to provide a more permeable soil channel that conducts water below ground along the plow direction.

Because of these actions, Keyline plowing has been reported to be a top-soil builder, because the macropore structures are explored by roots, and more water is available in previously dry soils.

However, the researchers noted that little scientific evidence exists to sup-port any of the claims of the impacts of Keyline plowing on organic matter building.

Farmer viewsThe farmers involved in the study

said they liked the effects of drying some areas and moving water into droughty areas.

Indeed, this drying and its effects in terms of allowing grazing stock to go on pastures earlier than would other-wise have been the case was perhaps the most positive result of the Keyline plowing, although one of the farmers reported that his fields dried out too quickly during a dry spell.

But there were several complaints. Cost was estimated at $280/acre in-cluding the cost of the required tractor (minimum 80 horsepower). Several of

the farmers said their fields were too bumpy after the plowing.

Daikon radishesThe second method tried for reduc-

ing compaction was seeding daikon forage radishes, which have taproots that push through compacted soil.

They make a nutritious fodder, promote beneficial nematode popu-lations, and scavenge nutrients that would otherwise leach in fall and win-ter rains, carrying them over for use by spring crops.

When forage radishes winterkill, the roots decompose, leaving vertical holes in the soil as well as cracks in compacted soils that act as conduits for water, air and roots to enter the soil profile more easily the following spring and summer. The research-ers noted that the taproots can reach depths of 16 inches.

The farmers in this trial issued some fairly positive reports. They were able to broadcast seed in ad-dition to using no-till drills, thus minimizing equipment costs. Seeding costs were as low as $24/acre. They liked having the flexibility to choose to either graze the plants or leave them alone for deeper root penetra-tion.

The radishes provided quality late-

season grazing. However, most of the farms suffered problems with seed germination.

Disappointing resultsThe Vermont project collected soil

and forage samples twice per year at each farm for several years, in the early and late periods of the grazing season.

With both methods, while there was variation between the farms, they saw no significant changes in soil penetra-tion resistance, active carbon, organic matter, bulk density and forage NDF.

They said this was somewhat unex-pected, as Keyline plowing has been said to increase topsoil. The Vermont team theorized that while this might happen in drier climates like Aus-tralia, but may not be as effective in more temperate climates.

Both Keyline plowing and dai-kon radishes had a positive effect on earthworm numbers compared to untreated areas, although the radish treatments had about twice as many earthworms — likely due to their roots feeding the worms.

Keyline-plowed fields were drier than those that had not received treat-ment: for one field the researchers measured approximately 30% less moisture after a major rainfall event.

A study of nearly 70,000 French adults who were tracked for an aver-age of 4.5 years found that those who ate the most organic foods were less likely to develop certain kinds of can-cer than the people who ate the least.

Because of the way the study was conducted, it is impossible to say that the organic foods people ate were the reason why they had fewer cases of cancer. But the results are significant

enough to warrant follow-up studies, the researchers wrote.

“Further research is required to identify which specific factors are responsible for potential protective ef-fects of organic food consumption on cancer risk,” they wrote in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.

The researchers that at least three pesticides—glyphosate, malathion and diazinon—probably cause cancer.

December 2018Page 18

By Joel McNair

“I was quite amazed when working with the

pasture products. It seemed like a

completely different substance at times.”

Study showed special qualities of pasture milk

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Milk made from pastured cows carries unique and desirable qualities that go far beyond the hard science of fatty acid ratios and into the realm of taste, texture and other “soft” attri-butes that may be even more impor-tant to consumers and the people who serve them.

That finding was found to be espe-cially true within the butterfat compo-nent of the grass-based milk. What’s more, those qualities hold true even if a little grain is being fed.

Four-year studyThose were some of the conclu-

sions of a study coordinated by the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.

A four-year effort completed in 2013, “Growing the pasture-grazed dairy sector in Wisconsin”, involved a wide range of participants includ-ing dairy graziers, multiple consumer taste panels, chefs, retail purchasers and university researchers.

Funded by a USDA Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program grant and led by Laura Paine, at that time the grazing and organic agriculture specialist with the Wisconsin department, the study largely dwelled upon comparisons between milk made by grazing cows during the pasture season and milk made by confined cows.

The pasture-produced milk came from five southern Wisconsin herds feeding grain in a range from about

five to ten daily pounds per cow, but no corn silage and very little har-vested hay.

Over a three-year period, grazed milk samples were taken during spring flush, mid-summer and Sep-tember, and processed into products including fluid milk, butter, yogurt and cheese.

This milk was compared to milk collected from a confinement dairy at mid-summer each year.

Each year, University of Wisconsin scientists investigated the composi-tion of both kinds of milk, and chefs reported on the culinary properties.

Color, texture and tasteThe focus of the university re-

search was on chemical composition characteristics that contribute to milk processing quality — not fatty acid ratios. Analysis was also done on physical properties such as texture, melting temperature and color.

Not surprisingly, the analysis showed that the pasture butter was far more yellow in color compared to conventional butter, even though most conventional butter has color added. Some people in the taste panels that were part of the study complained that the coloration was too intense and reminded them of margarine.

The project report noted that pas-ture butter is likely to vary in color depending on when the milk was produced during the grazing season.

“Consumer education may be needed to get people comfortable with this variability,” the report noted.

Cheeses made from the pasture milk also showed “a warmer, more golden hue than those made with conventional milk,” according to the report.

It also noted that research has shown that the different fatty acids found in pasture milk and promoted for health reasons also influence the texture of dairy products, with the largest effects seen in those with more butterfat.

Chefs who participated in the study found definite differences in the texture of pasture butter in particular. Compared to conventional butter, the pasture product was easier to work with across a broad range of cooking processes.

The chefs said that pasture butters are substantially softer at room tem-peratures, with a shear test conducted by researchers backing those claims.

Even more striking were the differ-ences in flavor between the two kinds of milk, with the pasture milk having more intense and complex flavors.

Chefs involved in this study said that while some fluid milk obtained in the spring had an “oniony” flavor and was not pleasant to drink, in cooking “it was phenomenal.”

It’s in the butterfatPasture butter often enhances the

flavors used in cooking, rather than masking them as is often the case with conventional butter.

“The differences between pasture and conventional milk seem to be concentrated in the butterfat,” the re-port noted. The research thus focused on unsalted butter.

“Curiously most commercially unsalted butter has ‘flavorings’ listed as an ingredient. According to (UW-Madison food scientist) Scott Rankin this is an addition added to make it taste more like butter.”

“All in all, I was quite amazed when working with the pasture products. It seemed like a completely different substance at times,” said Jack Kaestner, culinary instructor at Milwaukee Area Technical College.

Another note from the report: “(T)he enhanced flavors imparted

by the pasture … products have al-lowed (Kaestner) to reduce portion size by about one-third on his menus. Customers just seem to be satisfied with a smaller portion. There seems to be some ‘satiety effect’.”

Consumer views variedConsumers were somewhat less

enthused about the pasture milk. Work with “sensory panels” involving typical consumers indicated a general preference for the flavor, aroma and aftertaste of conventional milk.

However, focus groups com-posed of people labeling themselves as “foodies” who are willing to be among the first to try new products showed somewhat different results. These consumers preferred fluid milk from the pastured cows, citing creamier and sweeter taste.

Other products brought mixed responses from this group, with the panelists preferring cheeses made from conventional milk, but favoring the pasture butter.

The full report can be found here: https://.cias.wisc.edu/growing-the-pasture-grazed-dairy-sector-in-Wisconsin/

Editor’s note: The following is a summary of a Wisconsin study completed more than five years ago that offers some valuable in-sights into potential marketing avenues for milk made from cows ob-taining most of their feed from pasture. This follows along with what I’ve been saying about the potential for capitalizing on the unique attributes of grassfed butterfat in particular.

Page 19

Grassfed research project launching

Dry cow tube for reduction of new mastitis infections

Cinnatube TM

Somatic Cell ProgramLiquid feed supplement

(10 ml/day)

The natural dry cow alternative — For organic production

Dramatic reductions in SCC OMRI listed

Production, fat and protein responses Supporting research

17-18¢ per day

Dry cow issues are among the most expensive problems to the dairy farmer, and there has been

no product for the organic farmer to use.

Peer-reviewed literature in the United States and Europe shows just how effective Cinnatube is.

A recent peer-reviewed article, conducted by North Carolina State University and published in the Journal of Dairy Science, concluded that “The efficacy of the herbal products (Cinnatube) was similar to that of conventional (antibiotic) therapy, and the herbal

products had no apparent adverse effects.”

Join us for the Society for Range Management ConferenceFebruary 10-14, 2019Hilton Minneapolis • 1001 Marquett e Ave. S • Minneapolis, MN 55403

Speakers include Stanley Temple, Craig Allen and Clay Jenkinson

Session topics include plant responses to drought, nati ve pollinators, grassland restorati on, catt le grazing behavior technology, and producer forums

Acti viti es include tours, dance and brewery tour

Early discount registrati on rates in eff ect through December 29

For more informati on, see htt p://annualmeeti ng.rangelands.org

include Stanley Temple, Craig Allen and Clay

Calendar.... If you would like to list your event, contact Graze at P.O. Box 48, Belleville, WI 53508. e-mail: graze@ticon.net

February 15-16, 2019....Southern Iowa Grazing Conference, Mutchler Community Center, Bloomfield, IA. See ad, page 17.

January 15-17, 2019....Soil Health Academy, various dates and sites. See ad, page 9.January 18-19, 2019....Vermont Grazing & Livestock Conference, Lake Morey Resort, Fairlee, Vermont. See ad, page 6.January 31-February 2, 2019....GrassWorks Grazing Conference, Chula Vista Resort, Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. See ad, page 16.

February 10-14, 2019....Society for Range Management Conference, Hilton Minneapolis, Minneapolis, Min-nesota. See ad, page 19.

April 3-5, 2019....Grassfed Exchange Conference, Santa Rosa, California. See ad, page 14.

The per-hundredweight feed costs for no-grain organic dairies listed on page 13 of the November 2018 edi-tion are incorrect.

The correct numbers are: higher profit dairies, $3.99/cwt.; medium profit, $8.00; lower profit, $6.83.

Correction

Grassfed milk producers are invited to participate in a newly funded continuation of a research project that aims to “identify critical components of grass-fed dairy management that support high quality milk production, herd health, environmental health, and farm economic viability.”

Among the project’s goals is pro-viding information about economics and cost of production on dairies that do not feed grain to their cattle. Also planned are collection of information on production practices and research regarding nutrient cycling, soil health, MUN levels and forages.

The project will also explore mar-ket potential and expanding educa-tion and networking opportunities. Funded by a multi-year grant from USDA’s Organic Research and Exten-sion Initiative, the new effort will expand on a previous two-year project

that involved grassfed dairies in the Northeast.

All U.S. grassfed dairies will receive a survey about their produc-tion practices along with an invitation to participate in further phases of the four-year project.

For more information, contact project leader Heather Darby at 802-524-6501 or heather.darby@uvm.edu; Sarah Flack at 802-309-3714 or sarahflackconsulting@gmail.com; or Sara Ziegler at 802-524-6501, sara.ziegler@uvm.edu

The U.S. has no monopoly on dairy market access problems, as New Zealand’s government may be on the verge of telling its dominant milk buyer that it will no longer have to accept every new farm wanting to supply it with milk.

The NZ government is reviewing the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act, which gave birth to Fonterra in 2001

and allowed the cooperative to control 96% of the country’s milk production at one point. (That share reportedly has since declined to about 80%). The legislation was designed to allow New Zealand dairy products to be efficiently exported to global markets through a single business entity.

But the Kiwi dairy industry has been dealing with marketing and en-

vironmental issues that have reduced profits and made it a target for envi-ronmental activists. Various people across the NZ political spectrum are complaining that dairy farms are becoming too large, with some urging a ban on new dairies.

Minister of Agriculture Damien O’Connor said that while dairy growth had been good for the econ-omy, with dairy export receipts more than doubling in value since 2001, there had been a downside. “The growth of the dairy industry has had

negative effects on our environment, through increased greenhouse gas emissions, nitrate leaching, and the expansion of dairy into increasingly marginal land areas.”

A government discussion paper on the future of the dairy industry says that change is on the horizon, and it is possible that Fonterra will be split up. Fonterra has stated agreement with the idea that it should not have to ac-cept all new milk production into the cooperative. Changes to the law are expected in 2019.

Big changes afoot in New Zealand

December 2018Page 20

Winter meetingcoming up?

If you would like to have some copies of Graze call 608-455-3311, or email

us at graze@grazeonline.com

December 2012: North Carolina grazing dairy tops 20,000 lbs. milk. Making a case for annual grazing crops. Advisors on boosting pasture production. Finding land for beef grazing. Sheep graziers adding value. Organic forum: Producing quality winter forages.

back issuesAlso available at

www.grazeonline.com

October 2013: Veteran dairy graziers changing with the times. Advisors plan for winter. Leveraging grassfed’s advantages. Dr. Huber’s lament. McNally’s pasture renovation report. Get ready for a grassfed hamburger future. Organic forum: vaccination.

June-July 2014: Silvopasture: providing grazing in woodlots to aid both trees and stock. Advisors’ soil fertility programs. Tales from a direct-marketing farm. How to hike forage brix levels. Organic forum: feeding molasses. When disease hits a customer-based farm.

December 2014: Flexibility is key to young grass-based dairy farmer. Winter feeding strategies. Farmer thoughts on fodder sprouting. Avoiding off-flavors in grass-fed beef. What I learned from a 5,000-head ranch. Grazing in a carbon-counting world.

January 2015: Big companies enter grassfed beef market. The fame and struggles of Gunthorp Farms. Gabe Brown on adding farm enterprises to attract a new generation. Getting the energy into 100% grassfed dairy cows. Grassfed needs more productivity.

February 2015: Incubating a grass dairy dream. Why Gabe Brown lets nature do his cow selection. Dealing with pasture weeds. Is meadow fescue just another silver bullet grass? Allen Williams on linebreeding for the grassfed market. Organic milk price views.

March 2015: New York graziers launch butter business. Putting linebreeding on your farm. Advisors talk annual forage crops. Harnessing advanced soil testing. Finding the energy in forages. Gabe Brown: designing the grazing system. Lamb is “land salmon”.

June-July 2015: A2 milk marketing effort launched. Allen Williams on closing the gap between our farming and our food. Advisors deal with seedheads. Putting numbers to grazing residuals. Honest grassfed dairy labels. Organic forum: summer slump.

See www.grazeonline.com for sample articles.

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November 2015: Fescue works for no-grain dairyman. Advisors on saving labor. Allen Williams: grazing for grassfed beef and dairy success. More labor-saving ideas for pas-tured poultry. Making robots work with grazing. Your brain is key to solving handling ills.

December 2015: Cost-cutting graziers shift toward value-added. Being cheap doesn’t cut it anymore. Why he abandoned outwintering. The Van Amburghs manage the whole. Pastured poultry markets have changed. Organic forum: our toughest challenges.

January 2016: Cow comfort key to NY dairy’s no-grain milk success. Measuring financial progress on the grass farm. To make progress, disrupt your grazing comfort zone. Sheep adding to land value. Putting some numbers to cover crops. Stock need a good leader.

February 2016: Pooling resources to start an organic dairy. Tips for transitioning to 100% grassfed dairy. Balancing soils and milk production with alternative crops. Blue-sky calf housing. Good grazing requires good handling. Organic mistakes and successes.

March 2016: Building a resilient, 100% grassfed dairy. How small farms can thrive. Ani-mal welfare concerns benefit graziers. Moving cow-calf pairs on pasture. Van Amburghs stick close to nature in raising grassfed dairy calves. Making resources work for you.

April 2016: Allen Williams adds up the actual fatty acid benefits of grassfed. The eco-nomics of keeping dairy calves on their dams. Solving existing cow-calf behavior prob-lems. Introducing the Grassfed/Organic forum. Why I’m going to OAD milking.

May 2016: Denis Turner’s tips for contract heifer grazing. Planning for dry weather. An-nuals for summer slumps and winter feed. Janet McNally: grazing rotations control sheep parasites. Achieving profitability in grass-finished beef. Designing a Bud Box crowd pen.

June-July 2016: Surprises along the path to no-grain. Why the advisors feed grain. Allen Williams offers proof for soil health benefits. How to make a Bud Box crowd pen work. How one farm prices its grassfed beef. Grazing strategies for the organic, no-grain dairy.

August-September 2016: On-farm ice cream plant overcoming obstacles. All U.S. beef could be finished on grass. Keeping track of pasture. Think convenience in marketing ef-forts. Should newborn lambs be tagged? Adding up the costs of growing grassfed beef.

October 2016: Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship offers opportunities to a new generation. A little grazing helps a big confinement dairy. Analyzing fodder sprouting. Winter feed tips for no-grain dairy cows. Providing evidence for the benefits of sward diversity.

November 2016: Grass dairy rebuilds with help from friends. Getting paid to graze goats. Graziers must record what we’re doing for future generations. Farm store tips from Seven Sons Farms. Farm policy insanity. A different way to a better farm policy.

January 2017: Small and large dairies adapting to changing markets. Gabe Brown’s soil regeneration proof. Challenging residual gospel during a drought. Find flies before they find you. Pigs stack well with a grassfed beef operation. Raising calves without grain.

February 2017: A Missouri dairy where grass is king. We can build soils faster than conventional wisdom says. Fighting pasture flies. A holistic grazing plan. Dealing with the chaos of a diverse farm. No-stress weaning starts long before the actual event.

March 2017: Dairy outwintering system isn’t pretty, but it works. Advisors on managing the spring growth flush. Grazing lessons learned. Selecting sheep for parasite resis-tance. Rebuilding soils. No-stress weaning. Organic forum: avoiding skinny cows.

April 2017: Ben Simmons stacks grassfed enterprises in the Deep South. Advisors on their use of grazing annuals. What to look for in a grassfed dairy cow. Soil healh indica-tors you can see. Perennial pastures as the goal. Embrace those crazy consumers!

May 2017: Charles Opitz and Ted Miller re-invent dairy grazing in Louisiana. Advisors deal with heat stress. Watch mineral intake in no- and low-grain rations. How to profit from consumer tendencies. Explaining fatty acids. Grassfed soil fertility strategies.

June-July 2017: Deep South graziers building soil health. Advisors on establishing pas-ture. Stockmanship: getting problem animals going. How to produce grassfed lamb, part one. Start with the head when looking for a grazing cow. Tapping the guilt market.

August-September 2017: Grassfed dairy pioneers look to future. Handling dry weather. In cattle breeding, let form follow function. Saving organic dairy from itself. Leaving linear thinking behind. Finishing lambs on grazed forages. Mineral programs for no-grain dairy.

October 2017: Ohio company turning cropland into organic dairy pastures. Advisors deal with dry weather. Water’s role in the carbon cycle. Cobalt often overlooked in sheep pastures. What’s new in perennial grazing forages. In mating, treat cows as individuals.

November 2017: Midwestern farmers are planting trees in their pastures. Fake meat is going nowhere. What’s with those “happy lines” on cows? Retrofit milking parlors revis-ited. Grassfed organic forum: kceeping good forages in front of no-grain cows.

December 2017: Schlatters keep pace with changing direct-market situation. What farm owners need to know about motivating employees. Advisors: drying off and freshening cows. The value of livability PTAs. Exploring soil frontiers. Community marketing.

January 2018: Paying off the mortgage with no-grain dairy. Advisors on raising calves. Dairy heifer grazing economics. Soils grow up. Money talks in hiring. Grassfed organic forum: what makes a good dairy cow. How to graze amid trees. Relationship marketing.

February 2018: Grassfed beef co-op success, and lack of success. Gabe Brown on improving your degraded resource. Grazing math for healthy soils and wallets. Janet McNally: which sheep work best on pasture? Ensuring grassfed dairy’s future.

March 2018: Selecting cows for a 14,000-lb. no-grain herd. Advisors on manure han-dling. The real benefits of diversity. McNally’s picks for pasture-based lamb production. Thinning a woodlot for pasture. Organic cow treatment. Gabe Brown’s better soil test.

April 2018: A Minnesota couple does what it takes to improve soil health. Advisors describe their perfect cow. How cows help the environment. Getting a grip on grassfed dairy costs. How to get disruptive with your grazing. Time to take raw milk seriously.

May 2018: Small New England dairy making a go of processing. Advisors get cows bred. Thoughts on marketing your own milk. Starting a grazing farm from scratch. Establishing forages in a newly opened woodlot. Organic forum: dealing with flies. Don’t clip!

June-July 2018: Gabe Brown and Allen Williams on how to avoid cover crop failures. Cover crops for sheep grazing. Advisors manage summer pasture. Marketing milk as burgers, butter and pork. Grassfed hopes rising in the Northeast.

August-September 2018: Can pigs be finished without grain? Managing late-season pasture. Starting from scratch: buying beef cows. Cover crop success stories. Grassfed organic forum: addressing lower prices. Managing vegetation in silvopasture.

Classified Rates: Minimum charge $15.00 for 20 words. Additional words 80 cents/word. Call 608-455-3311.

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For sale: Well-established NE Ohio grass-fed beef farm and business. Profitable, long-time business with excellent direct-to-consumer and food industry business model. Great op-portunity for an established business looking to expand or a young family to take to the next level. Inquiries:jmyers@ingw.com 216-314-6159

October 2018: A cash grain farmer moves to no-grain dairy. Advisors discuss what they feed, and why. Selling pasture butter. Creating shade on pastures. How one sheep gra-zier fights parasites. Run the numbers before reducing grain feeding for pastured pigs.

For sale: Six grassfed Black Angus cross cows, due in May and June. Bred by top quality Red Devon/Red Angus cross bull. $2000 to $2300 each. Henry K. Beiler, 15307 Dry Hollow Rd, Fennimore, WI 53809.

Graze back issue specialMissing some back issues of Graze in your library? Looking for some winter reading material? Through December 31, 2018, back issues are on sale for $3 each. See list of available back issues below. We are starting to run out of some issues, so take advantage of this offer now! Price includes postage. Please specify issues being ordered, and send your check to Graze, P.O. Box 48, Bel-leville, WI 53508.

November 2018: Building a grassfed genetic base. Advisors tell how they raise replace-ment heifers. Grassfed Alliance to promote “authentic” milk and meats. What if “local” isn’t making enough money? Grassfed organic forum: Dealing with weird weather.

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December 2018Page 22

By Jim Van Der Pol

What should I do if it won’t stop raining?Conversations with the land

Mud has been the defining charac-teristic of our farming here in western Minnesota for three years running.

The layers of mud on the steps up to the loader tractor platform are beginning to seem very familiar — almost like a factory installed option.

The season-long continuous and of-ten flooding rains are accompanied by winters sufficiently warm to make us fear destroying the swards by feeding hay atop our deep and poorly drained clay soils.

For the first time in my grazing experience I find myself wishing for dairy-style, walk-back lanes to facili-tate bringing the stock cows off the pastures during rainy times.

The hard part is that I must also wish for thousands of dollars of con-crete to stand them on for the dura-tion, and then of course that there be enough money in stock cows to pay for any of this.

Field work is worse Difficult as the grazing has been

with the worry over soft soils and long term compaction damage, any-thing involving a tractor is worse. We

find ourselves severely short of hay this year for the simple reason that we could not get a tractor and cutting machinery across the hayfields for far too much of the summer, let alone a heavy hay baler.

Consequently the hay became too mature and deteriorated to junk, the annual seeding included.

We cut perennial hay once mostly, twice for a few acres, rather than the usual three or four cuttings. New seed sits stacked on a pallet in the machine shed, as we were unable once again to get it planted in a timely manner.

It is a little startling to remember that the pasture grass is on the wettest part of the farm, while the hay is on the “good ground”. We will be closely culling and selling down the cow herd this fall. More than a few cow/calf pairs will go down the driveway.

Manure in the groundwater Ruts-R-Us. And it is no different

for the neighbors, one of which is a

brand new, 10,000-cow dairy factory. This outfit feeds what seems to be a majority corn silage diet to its cows, and it makes the silage on eight or ten quarter-sections of land.

One of these just north of us was formerly owned by a neighbor, but is now in the loving care of the state’s premier ethanol plant builder, who invested his ex-cess money in several sections of land.

The silage is made by several large, self-propelled machines cutting and blow-ing the silage into a

trailing semi-truck. This year most of those semis were pushed/pulled through the mud by a crawler tractor.

This quarter-section sat for four weeks with water in those wheel ruts. Then came the manure applicator dragging a hose from the lagoon a mile away. Very much of that injected manure sat on the compacted soils, pooling in every depression.

It required a strong stomach to drive past, and no particular intel-

ligence to ask how effective even our heavy clay soils could be at keeping the manure out of the groundwater, what with the groundwater and the manure puddling right next to each other.

We have a similar problem with our hog feeding. For 20 years we have fattened the hogs for our pork sales in hoop houses. These have a concrete pad on one end to hold the drinker and the self-feeders, and a compacted earthen area on which to build the bedding pack.

The pack doesn’t work anymore. For several years now we have needed to rent a track-style skidloader to clean there, fishing the manure out of the mud. And even that is begin-ning not to work.

What should be done?So change is in the air. And as al-

ways, what change happens is decided by who can change and who cannot.

It would cost us probably three or four thousand dollars per hoop to concrete them entirely, thus achieving a pretty good separation between the manure and the ground water. Chang-ing a dairy factory manure system

Page 23

Jim Van Der Pol grazes and markets from his farm near Kerkhoven, MN.

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might be a touch more expensive.The real difficulty with all of this

is the extreme weakness of human prognostication. We love to talk about the future, but we are simply unable to see it with any clarity.

Will the wetness continue? Three years is something of a trend. Or will it swing back the other way?

My half-century of farming sug-gests a swing is likely. But has something significant permanently changed?

The weather has. The climate, too, I think. But it is hard to predict the results in a particular place. My years of farming are but a blip in the life of the land here.

What I knowSo we are in the neighborhood of

the educated guess. What do I know?I know that we grazed more animal

units on the pastures this year than any prior year, though last year was outstanding as well. The grass pro-duction has been phenomenal.

I do fear a certain amount of long-term damage from compaction in certain areas. There are also certain aspects of the fencing and layout that need changing to facilitate animal movement.

Annual organic crop production is difficult to the point of impossible. We have spent three years adding significantly to the weed seed bank on the cropping acres. Organic grain

prices are still good enough to tempt us to continue production, but the reality is that the cropping does not work well.

It looks to me as if making dry hay may not work anymore, either. This leaves us with baleage, at least when the hayfields are not too wet to navi-gate with the baler.

Stock cows are 1,300 lbs. of prodi-gious appetite on four feet. If a cow is going to turn a profit producing a calf to graze the following season, she is going to have to live on junk, mostly. She will have to graze areas better suited to sheep and goats.

She will need to spend her life, as a neighbor used to say about the old ewes his father railed in from the West, on sticks and stones. I am not sure that describes our farm, at least not yet.

Decisions, decisionsSo there is a decision to be made. Is

it better to use the good grass on soft soil to add weight to an 800-pound animal with a reasonable appetite and a good chance at returning something of high value? And can good calves that will finish on grass be purchased?

The hogs here could be fed and bedded with off-farm purchases. Many of the inputs for the hogs already come from off the farm. They are the source for our pork meat sales, which are still pretty much the center-piece of our marketing.

This approach of purchasing feed inputs, bringing in fertility to the land in the process, has been a good one, although it goes contrary to the wis-dom about adaptation of the livestock to the land, as I have had argued to me more than once by people for whom I have deep respect.

I suppose this is a compromise, and perhaps a necessary one in view of the depleted condition of our soils due to the years of trying to starve a profit out of the farm as a small corn-soybeans operation before we went to a livestock-on-the-land practice.

While the grazing and organic farm-ing would by themselves eventually have done the trick, I see evidence the process has been faster with pur-chased feeds.

Adapting to a new normal, if that is what this is, will mean examining ev-ery aspect of operations. A good sense of humor will come in handy in case our preparations for this new normal are met partway by the next drought. This would be the “new new” normal.

FE

RS

KVA

NN

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