Consider Adding Forages to Help Cut Feed Costs
Published: Friday, February 7, 2020
The following is from Victor Shelton, NRCS state agronomist/grazing specialist.
As a dairy producer, you face many decisions when managing your operation and the natural resources on your land. Many decisions can be very difficult, especially with the current economics of fluid milk.
Low milk prices—this is somewhat due to reduced demand of commodity fluid milk. There is a lot of speculation and some good explanation for this. This is partially due to the volatile commodity market. Presently, mega dairies are operating at lower production costs than smaller dairies because of scale, but these prices are not sustainable even long term for these big dairies. Specialty products, e.g., organic milk, grass-fed milk, are superior in price and usually quality compared to commodity and consumers are willing to pay more for it.
Specialty products, organic milk, grass-fed milk, can have some premium as compared to commodity milk and some consumers are willing to pay for it.
Consumer awareness and support is increasingly important. Education is needed to help consumers understand the differences between all the milk products available and, more importantly, to help keep the environmentally friendly appearance of a happy cow in green grass on their mind.
Nutritional differences also need to be talked about. It's important, especially with climate topics on people's minds, that we manage grazing systems well so we can justify and maintain the stance of sequestration of carbon in these systems. It's important that we make systems look good and paint the picture that people want to imagine their milk and milk products coming from. This includes animal welfare.
We need to be treating our animals more like people. We need to remove the image of animals under stress and unpleasant conditions, and instead, portray them as happy, content, and in an environment that people want to think their milk comes from. Transparency in food is becoming a major consumer demand.
What can be done to help until economic change? Reducing fed feed is a good place to start. Lactating cows, dry cows and even replacement heifers can all be raised on forages. The animals can graze those forages themselves instead of us harvesting and feeding them, at least a lot more than what is often done.
If you are only utilizing pasture for lounging areas and most feed is fed at the barn, then moving towards a grazing system where the cows are moved twice a day to new allotments of fresh forage can reduce fed feed costs. This is difficult for most present systems due to animal-to-land base ratios. If you are already grazing, improving forage quality and quantity can boost intake and possibly milk production if energy is an issue.
If you are presently grazing only during the normal growing season and dominantly on perennial forages, then the addition of annual forages during summer annual periods and for fall, early winter and possibly spring grazing can extend the grazing season, reducing fed feed.
There are a lot of opportunities to work annuals into your present cropland rotation. Warm-season annuals fit in well after wheat or wheatlage and can provide excellent forage during the summer months and at the same time provide erosion control and improve soil health. Cool-season annuals can be then seeded afterwards. Oats, a brassica such as turnips and cereal rye provide good fall grazing as long as moisture is available. In addition, the cereal rye provides cover for the field and more grazing or baleage during the following spring. The cereal rye may also be an excellent cover to no-till corn or silage corn into.
No matter the forage; quality. quantity forage diversity and management are all extremely important. Overgrazing and lack of sufficient rest before grazing again are very common issues.
If you are presently chopping or baling all of your forage, then at least a good portion of that could be grazed directly instead of harvesting and then feeding it. Anything that a cow harvests itself is always going to be cheaper feed than anything you carry to her. If a wheel is turning, you are spending money.
Some cropland, especially marginal cropland, might be better off in longer rotations that include forages. Those forages could be for hay, baleage or for grazing. If forages are grazed, approximately 80 percent of the nutrients that are removed by the forage are returned to the soil by the cows, especially if you are doing a good job of grazing management.
There are a few opportunities for 100 percent grass-based milk. This can have a price advantage which makes up for some loss of production. Is it better to try and get bigger or to graze more? If you are making $2 profit per hundred weight of milk ($15 gross - $13 cost) and shipping 1 million pounds, your annual income would be $20,000. If you increased production by 50 percent with more cows, you are only increasing your profit by another $10,000 or $30,000. However, if you reduced your total cost per hundred weight by 30 percent with grazing and keep the same cow numbers, now you are making $59,000 instead of $30,000.
It is much more profitable to reduce cost, than increase production. Even if grazing causes you to lose 20 percent of milk production to 800,000 pounds per year cutting cost with grazing is more profitable.
On the price side, it would benefit many small dairies to work together on a marketing plan with a local processing plant rather than go to the big plants. There are also opportunities for marketing specialized by-products instead of fluid milk including cheese, butter and ice-cream. These can be enhanced even more by being A2 or 100 percent grass-based products. Consumers generally like and want local food.
What are some practices that might be beneficial and possibly even have financial assistance available?
• Crop rotation—Growing a diverse number of crops.
• Fence—Used to keep livestock on property and to subdivide fields into smaller allocations for rotating.
• Forage and biomass planting—Planting of grasses and legumes for hay and pasture.
• Cover Crops—Grasses, legumes, and broadleaves planted for seasonal cover and some grazing.
• Annual Forages for Grazing – Grasses, legumes, and broadleaves for forage.
• Heavy Use Area Protection—Stabilized surface protection, quite often rock and lime, used in high density frequently used areas to reduce mud and improve water quality.
• Prescribed grazing —The practice of forage management with grazing livestock. Stocking rates, stock density, proper allocations, management and rest is important. Allocations are easily made with temporary fence. Lack of proper management is quite often the issue.
• Water facility—Permanent or portable water facilities needed to provide adequate water for the grazing system.
• Pipeline—Conduit to provide water where needed in the grazing system.
• Water sources—This can include wells, ponds, and spring developments. Municipal water is used quite often, especially when most economically feasible.
• Stream Crossings—Stabilized area or structure across streams for travel by people, animals, and equipment.
• Fertilizer and Manure Management—Using the right source, rate, time, and placement of nutrients to maximize crop use and minimize loss. This can be a major expense and issue if not managed properly.
• Erosion Control—Using no-till/strip-till, structures, and other practices to control erosion.
• Soil Health Management Systems—Combination of practices to improve soil organic matter, trap and recycle nutrients, and improve water infiltration and water holding capacity.
• Animal Waste Facilities—Stockpiling or storing manure in an environmentally safe manner for improved nutrient utilization and conservation. Consider opportunities to work with other landowners to expand land applications, especially when nutrient levels are getting high. Keep clean water clean; improve water quality and reduce the amount of water getting into storage facilities (less pumping/hauling).
Technical assistance for planning a grazing system and possibly some financial assistance is available through your local Natural Resources Conservation Service, contact your district conservationist for more information.
Return to Top of Page