Maximize profits on your dairy farm with grazing

Dairy farming is the single biggest land use in the Great Lakes Basin. Feeding dairy cows with well-managed pasture can reduce costs, protect water quality, and fight climate change. Maximizing efficiency will increase the probability of long-term financial viability of dairies using grazing. From just grazing youngstock to a fully grass-fed dairy herd or somewhere in between, there are many ways for dairy farms to use well-managed pasture to increase profits. Low-overhead dairy grazing can reduce both variable and fixed costs of production which can allow farms to be profitable even at low milk prices. Through a new project, Wallace Center and Winrock, in collaboration with Dairy Grazing Alliance and Food Finance Institute, is mobilizing specialized technical assistance to support dairy grazing. 

Services

This project will help dairy farmers in the Great Lakes Basin to either start grazing, improve the efficiency of their operation, and/or create the necessary technical and business plans to move toward a low-overhead dairy grazing system. We will provide a range of services customized to each farm. The full cost of the technical assistance is covered by a grant from the Great Lakes Protection Fund. The services provided may include the following (depending on your goals): 

• Farm financial analysis and goal setting
• Technical assistance customized to your needs (e.g. facilities and retrofit design, grazing management, herd nutrition and health, financial analysis) 
• Business planning for reducing your overhead costs per hundredweight of milk and increasing profitability 
• Support to develop appropriate sharemilking arrangements 
• Assistance securing appropriate financing, if needed, to make changes on your farm
• Analysis of water quality and climate benefits from your farm that may help facilitate financing  

Benefits of Grazing

• Lower feed costs by maximizing nutrient intake from grazed pasture
  • Well managed pasture is the cheapest source of high quality forage.
• Healthier animals – lower culling rates & lower vet costs
• Potential to lower overhead costs of buildings and machinery
• Increased dairy farm efficiency for feed, labor, and capital
• Potential to increase net farm income

Photos of Low Overhead Dairy Grazing

Resources

Grazing: Economies of scale to lower overhead costs >>
This article, published in 2023 in Progressive Forage, describes Dr. Jon Winsten’s work on dairy grazing systems and the efficiencies of the large herd, low overhead model.

Project Handout >>
Low-overhead dairy grazing can give farmers greater flexibility and profitability, as well as contribute to quantifiable environmental and social benefits. This document provides an overview of the context of dairy in the Upper Midwest and a brief description of the benefits of low-overhead dairy grazing.