Grass Fed Dairy Has Big Potential

Grass Fed Dairy Has Big Potential Billions of dollars in imports from grass-fed dairies in Ireland, New Zealand and Australia are up for grabs, according to Joe Tomandl. He’s a Wisconsin dairyman and the Dairy Grazing Alliance (DGA) executive director. “We’re looking at a $6.9 billion market for grass-fed dairy products by 2031,” says Tomandl. “A single Irish dairy brand sells a billion dollars’ worth of butter in the U.S. today. It’s time to build out our grass-fed dairy sector.” The DGA consists of dairy farmers, technical support organizations, government agencies, financing institutions and others. It’s focused on scaling up not only the viability of production systems, but also financing, market development, farm profitability, research, policy and advocacy for dairy grazing. Tomandl started the Dairy Grazing Apprentice program in 2010 to jumpstart the next generation of managed grazing dairies. Since then, it’s provided more than 750,000 hours of training to aspiring dairy farmers in 16 states. The DGA was started to boost that sector from cow to consumer. It now houses the apprentice program. “We launched the alliance last year to scale up managed grazing dairy to meet the consumer demand,” says Tomandl. “We have to hit production, but also efficiency of scale.” Conventional dairies have scaled up rapidly in recent years, increasingly with thousands of cows per farm. Dairy processors often refuse to pick up less than truckload volumes. “When we looked at managed grazing, we could never see how to scale up as well,” says Tomandl. “We have to figure out how to do it, which is what the alliance is doing.” Tomandl’s own managed grazing dairy is a template for DGA’s Dairy Grazing Development Campus. He and his wife, Christy, started their first dairy farm in 1998, grazing 35 cows on an 80-acre farm. Today, they manage three grass-fed dairies with 175 to 200 head each, all on nearby farms. “We aren’t 550 cows under one dairy, but we can still put together a semi load of milk every other day,” says Tomandl. “As an industry, we need to look at 150 to 200-cow dairies. They can be independently owned, but ship to the same pool.” The DGA campus would take that template to the next level, envisioning 15 to 20 mid-sized grazing dairies within a 20-mile radius. This model combines the efficiencies of a 3,000 to 4,000-cow dairy with independently owned farms. While it’s unclear if it’ll ever be developed, the template has been proven. DGA is moving forward to promote it and explore its market potential. “There’s no simple solution where, if the market wants it, it just happens,” says Tomandl. “We need to get the efficiencies in place and line up all the pieces in the supply chain.” Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Dairy Grazing Alliance (ph 715-553-0364; info@dga-national.org; www.dga-national.org) or New Dairy Concept (www.new-dairy-concept.dga-national.org).

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