| August 17, 2004:
Dairyman David Iles used to think that if his herd’s
milk flow decreased even a little bit, he would go bankrupt.
For a decade the third-generation farmer worked hard to produce
lots of milk. But he gradually came to the realization that
the maximum-production philosophy of the American dairy industry
was getting him nowhere.
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"I wouldn’t go back to
conventional dairying under any circumstance." |
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Eleven years after the North Carolina dairyman switched to
become a learner of how to manage a herd on intensively managed
pasture, he’s much happier. "I wouldn’t go
back to conventional dairying under any circumstance.”
He’s found his new system is more profitable even though
it’s less demanding in terms of capital, labor and time.
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Farm
- at - a - Glance
Acreage: 360 total acres
Grazing on 160 acres; Small grains for winter
grazing: 80 acres
Location: Littleton, NC, just
south of the Virginia about an hour and 45 minutes
north of Raleigh.
Production methods: 190 pasture
raised cattle. Iles' goal is to graze the cattle
every day of the year. Pastures are fungus-free
fescue, bluegrass and clover. A few of them are
orchardgrass, bluegrass and clover, cattle are
supplemented with six to seven pounds of protein
a day. |
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“From 1983 to 1993 we averaged a half million dollars
a year with a 19,000-pound herd average,” says Iles.
“Yet at the end of that time, we were just as deep in
debt as we were at the beginning. It didn’t make any
sense to keep going in that direction.”
An innovator who knew he had to cut production costs, Iles transitioned in
1993 to a pasture-based program. “Since then, we have
seen better herd health, lower cost of production, less need
for borrowed money, and our average profits have stayed the
same or increased,” he says.
“That doesn’t mean each cow giving all the milk
it can possibly give,” Iles explains. “We’ve
turned away from that. Now, I would rather have two cows milking
50 pounds a day than one milking 100 pounds a day.”
He runs a 190-cow dairy herd near Littleton, in the north-eastern
part of the state just below the Virginia line.
Five years into his grass-based system, a consortium of schools
and state agencies founded an innovative ag research facility
in Goldsboro. The Center for Environmental Farming Systems
(CEFS) is dedicated to the development of farming systems
that are environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable.
The center launched its Pasture-Based Dairy Unit in 1998,
and has been closely monitoring two 40-head herds since 2001.
Going for the net
The core of Iles’ system is figuring out ways not to
buy things. “We are making money by not spending money.
We are not increasing our gross [farm income], but we are
increasing our net.” And it’s what left over that
really counts.
His primary focus is to nurture high-quality pastures. “We
started with orchardgrass, alfalfa and clover, but that mixture
didn’t survive dry weather very well,” he says.
“Now most of our pastures are fungus-free fescue, bluegrass
and clover. A few of them are orchardgrass, bluegrass and
clover.”
He feeds silage when lack of rain reduces pasture potential,
ensiling sorghum-Sudangrass, soybeans or pasture clippings
in trench silos. “We used to keep some corn silage,
but we left it because it was simply too expensive for us.”
He still feeds some grain, delivering it efficiently via
a mixer/grinder to the cattle on a drive-through concrete
feed floor with feeding racks on both sides. “We think
we need to feed six to seven pounds of protein a day, and
we estimate the energy needs based on our own observation,”
he says. “We buy the grain, mostly shell corn and hominy
– a high-energy, high-starch ration. Most of the time
we will be feeding 10 to 12 pounds of grain during warm weather
and 20 to 22 pounds in the winter.”
He has increased grain feeding in the past year because he
added a 65-cow herd to his own 125 milk cows. “The price
of milk now will support that,” he notes. “We
wouldn’t be doing this if our price was still low.”
Cows selected for grass
His herd has a very mixed-breed look. “It is a proper
herd of mongrels. We started crossbreeding in 1993 when we
had an all-Holstein herd,” Iles says. “Most of
the cows we’ve brought in since the have been Jerseys,
with a few Ayrshires and a few Brown Swiss. In just a few
instances we have used Dutch Belted.”
When you look at his herd now, you see reds, blacks, browns,
a few obvious Holsteins and a very few purebred Jerseys. “The
Jersey is a great breed, but it tends to be a little small
for our facilities,” says Iles. “We like crossbreds,
especially the Jersey-Holstein cross. It’s smaller than
a Holstein, a little bigger than a Jersey, and a better grazer
than the Holstein.
Grazier (GRAY-zhiee-r)=
a farmer whose animals graze
Grazer = GRAY-zer an animal that grazes
He’s building herd genetics that work on his grass-based
system. “We have a herd that we have created to do what
we want it to do – have good herd health, breed back
on time, maintain a low culling rate, utilize forages and
maximize the resources of the farm.” Iles tries to maintain
a replacement rate of 40 percent or more, and keep his cull
rate below 25 percent. This means he has heifers for internal
growth, for sale, or both.
Iles thinks production-focused conventional dairy breeders
are skewing genetic traits in Holsteins, making them into
a “dysfunctional breed. “The culling rate is constantly
increasing, because they are essentially breeding for a cow
that will not breed back. They are breeding these cows to
neglect their physical needs, and reproduction is the first
thing to go.”
Healthier cows milking at a lower rate will stay in the herd
longer, he thinks. His herd milks about 12,000 pounds per
cow per year, compared to 18,000 to 19,000 pound averages
for all NC herds in the DHIA program. He hopes to improve
longevity, but his cows already produce for one more (three
to four) lactation than the state’s average (two to
three), he says.
Odor-free dairy keeps neighbors happy
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"We can exist next to residential
neighbors and get along fine. In fact, they say they enjoy
the sight of the cattle in the pastures" |
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Iles’ farm has been in his family since his grandfather
bought it in 1888. His father began the dairy in 1931 and built
the milking parlor that Iles still uses in 1939. Now in his
sixties, Iles looks back with some wonder at a lifetime in dairying.
There was one totally unexpected benefit of converting to
a pasture-based program, Iles found out. “A grazing
dairy has no smell,” he says. “We can exist next
to residential neighbors and get along fine. In fact, they
say they enjoy the sight of the cattle in the pastures.”
But potentially the biggest benefit of this program, Iles
thinks, is the relatively low level of up-front capital required.
“Pasture-based dairying is the only segment of agriculture
now in which a small farm unit can produce an agricultural
commodity more efficiently than the factory farm,” says
Iles. “It gives a young person the opportunity to enter
the milking business without incurring huge expenses.”
Chris Bickers is a freelance writer-photographer in Raleigh,
NC.
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