The future of the dairy cow??

[clayfoot-sandyman]

Hello all.

Had a chat last week to a friend who works for an organic ag. research institute who told me about a conference on sustainability in agriculture he recently went to.
He came away very depressed from a presentation on sustainable futures in dairy farming – the dairy farm being the most fossil fuel consuming and CO2 ommitting of all aspects of farming.
The speaker put forward that the only way to decrease dairy farming’s carbon footprint was to push the cow harder – projecting milk yields of 30% more in the next 20 years through breeding practises and the use of GM crops for feed (supposedly cutting down on the need for as much fertiliser/tractor work and upping proteins etc).
The interesting thing that my friend told me was that the ‘model’ used to project how much carbon is ommitted in a cow’s life including fuel to heat water in the dairy, run machinery, electricity etc which this whole proposition of further pushing the dairy cow harder is based upon does not offset the outputs with the soils natural ability to sequester CO2 because the science is not ‘robust’ – i.e too many unpredictables for strict numerical analysis. However some researchers have proposed that by maintaining herds of cattle grazed outdoors in summer and housed in winter large areas of grassland are required which offset all CO2 outputs from cattle plus sequestering up to 60% of human made carbon.
So the poor old dairy cow will be further enslaved to business interests at the
expense of her health and ability to express her natural instincts. Being a friend of cows this makes my heart heavy I have to say.
What we really need to do is look at our diets in relation to land use, this is mere speculation but I think there is a milk/meat ratio in our diet which would correlate to a productive capacity of a given locality, farmed in a way which would keep the land vital and abundant for eternity and would equally preserve our integral health through the right quantity and quality of meat/dairy intake….:)

Ed

[jac]

The future does seem bleak Ed but surely the likes of Mosanto’s gm crap will die a death when people realise you need more fertilisers and pesticides and not less plus farmsaved seed will not be possible when this lot get going..bivol on this forum told me of a small farmer who had achieved near 6 tons/acre in wheat !! no gm rubbish, just organic husbandry at its best.. Our neighbour who has a dairy farm was telling me just the other day that he could see his cows kept in 24/7 in the near future.. recons they waste more grass than they use ??…
John

[Stable-Man]

I’d come away depressed too. You’d think people at a sustainability conference could come up with a better solution. Rather than pushing a cow harder, how about reducing fuel? An increase in milk would just lower the prices more and make dairying even more difficult. Aren’t steers just sold for slaughter? They could be put to use if the farmer is willing. There’s a farm a few counties from me that using intensive grazing rather than grain feeding, though I don’t know anything about their fuel consumption. I figured in the UK temps were moderate enough that a cow could be grazed almost year around on good quality grass, thus reducing the diesel for haying.

About diet, I believe in the US we could definitely reduce both milk and meat eating. Instead of trying to fit methane filters on a cow’s rear or feeding cattle these weird diets, just sell fewer cattle! The prices would go up for meat and milk, and there wouldn’t need to be the constant expansion. Reduced consumption would mean that we pay more but for fewer lbs./gallons it might even out. You’d have smaller spaces to heat, etc, with a smaller herd, and therefore less to worry about with carbon sequestration.

[jwayne972]

Since switching to milk from the local organic dairy we consume half the amount we used to in a week. Being that it is only pasteurized it is richer in flavor and substance, so we don’t drink it like water. Even with the higher price tag we are spending less.

[jac]

Thats a good observation.. I think the same could be said for a lot of foods.. Chicken for example.. the cheap factory produced bird with bones too soft to support its own weight and crammed into sheds provide 1 meal ???? the more expensive free range bird can also make a pot of soup the next day so to my mind represents better value… but its getting the message across thats the problem..
Stableman the high rainfall over here combined with the heavy Holstien means the land would poach if the herd was left out all year.. but winter housing is still a better option than the 24/7 housing idea…
John

[Stable-Man]

@jac 19417 wrote:

Stableman the high rainfall over here combined with the heavy Holstien means the land would poach if the herd was left out all year.. but winter housing is still a better option than the 24/7 housing idea…
John

Don’t know if you’ve seen this but it’s a Documentary for the BBC about oil reliance and permaculture and at one point they mention planting grasses for a tough turf for year-round grazing…although I don’t remember if it was for sheep or cattle. That would make a big difference which it is. It’s a little more interesting in the sense that the girl’s family is farming and not just trying to rip typical agriculture from “the outside looking in.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xShCEKL-mQ8

[jac]

Thanks for that link Cameron….
John

[dominiquer60]

I visited a local organic dairy where a friend of ours milks 5 cows, 2 are Lineback/Holstein/Angus crosses, one Holstein/Angus and 2 Holstein. She loves the crosses and only has the pure holsteins for the certification until she can get more of her cross heifers milking. The crosses give a good amount of fat and protein for her cheese and they only eat grass and a little ground corn at milking. I would like to see little dairies like this be the future of the dairy industry.

Erika

[Stable-Man]

With that few cows a person could milk by hand, forgo the fancy equipment that I guess runs off of diesel or electricity, but that’s not sterile enough:rolleyes: A dairy would be better as a part of a larger farm scheme. An old book I have says dairying should be done in a smaller, more intensive operation because of the labor involvement. It was one part of a diversified operation…well, at least that’s what the book advocated.

Another interesting point from that book is the transition from buggy to car; people took the issue seriously. Car=greater distance possible, and that, they believed, would dismantle little communities. Not sure whether that happened or not….

[jac]

I think the car did dismantle communities but not till much later. over here we have small rural villages that were populated by farm workers and folks connected with local trades ie wheelwrites and blacksmiths not to mention small butcher, bakery and grocers shops… now they are filled with lawyers and doctors who just sleep there and dont even use any local shops{nearly all gone} because they buy their food at “Crapco” on the way home. And because they can afford to buy houses so easily the prices have skyrocketed and real country folk cant afford to stay.. We had a local silage contractor told to stop by the police because of the noise !!! these people have no sense of urgency at harvest time….
I like the idea of a beef x for a house cow.. Ayrshire/Angus mabey…
John

[Joshua Kingsley]

I would like to have a small dairy myself. I was hoping to milk around 6 cows and bottle the milk on farm for sale at the local farmers market and local delivery. I was going to stick with heritage breed cattle that would do well on forage alone and then be able to work the horses for power to feed the farm. If everything worked out there would also be hogs for meat and a few steers raised for beef as well. That was my idea of the future of dairy.

[Nat(wasIxy)]

The answer to keeping cattle out year-round is very, very simple – move them every day. This is what we do, and over 8 years (allowing time for the epastures to repair themselves, build diversity etc) we have decreased our housing period to just 2 months, on heavy clay in a very low, wet area. We never fertilise, spray, top etc and make silage or hay purely to keep on top of the grass if it gets away from the herd. We never worm, vaccinate or use pour-ons on the animals. As they graze intensively, nothing is wasted and weeds cannot survive for long. NO grain is ever fed to the cattle.

We’re hopefully going into dairy, with jerseys, after the success of the beef on this system. I do NOT think that pushing cows for higher yields is the answer – what on earth has that acheived so far? Farmers being paid a pittance for their milk, and consumers paying less for it than bottled water and tipping Xlitres down the sink because it goes off before they drink it – but who cares? it’s cheap, we’ll buy some more….. IMO we are already well supplied, even over-supplied, with dairy and we’ll know when we’re not because the price will go up!!!

Who does doom-mongering like this help? Consumers? No. Farmers? No way! Cows? I think you know the answer…

GM companies? Drug companies? Feed companies? ….. 😉

[jac]

Hey Ixy your system sounds like it would work in Ayrshire… wet and heavy land.. What kind of stocking rates are you using ?…
John

[Nat(wasIxy)]

It works anywhere! People love to say ‘it won’t work on light/heavy soils, or big/small areas or wet/dry areas’ etc etc but the truth is – anywhere grass grows, this system simply makes better use of it. So some areas will always be better than others, but we’re getting proportionally more from all of them, right across the board.

We have 60ish cattle and 30ish sheep on 40 acres, and there’s certainly room for more as every year the land gets more productive – so we’re already beating the old 1-acre-per-cow rule, and putting sheep on top. We could certainly do with more sheep – their grass has totally got away from them this year, even though it’s been dry.

[dlskidmore]

@Stable-Man 19419 wrote:

Don’t know if you’ve seen this but it’s a Documentary for the BBC about oil reliance and permaculture …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xShCEKL-mQ8

Part 4 there gets into one of my favorite agricultural topics: hedgerows. Although the hedgerow spotlighted appears to be a wildlife row rather than a stockproof one. There will definitely be a hedgerow experiment on my farm, to see if any plants native to this area can build as good a system as the English and Scottish hedgerows. I already have a small row planted in my little city place, but I doubt they will be mature enough to produce haws before we move.

@Stable-Man 19424 wrote:

Another interesting point from that book is the transition from buggy to car; people took the issue seriously. Car=greater distance possible, and that, they believed, would dismantle little communities. Not sure whether that happened or not….

The Amish believe that. It is the primary motivation for their restrictions on technology. That’s also why they allow generators and batteries, but not power lines. Dependence on the city over family and neighbors is discouraged.

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