New tool shows Wisconsin farmers cost benefits of letting cows graze

When Jim Munsch began studying extra about utilizing managed grazing for beef cattle within the Nineteen Eighties, he went on pasture walks with farmers already utilizing the apply and sought out info from native College of Wisconsin-Extension educators.

Managed grazing is the apply of rotating livestock by a collection of paddocks and permitting the animals to eat perennial grasses as a substitute of preserving them confined to feedlots.

Munsch mentioned when individuals talk about the advantages of managed grazing, they usually speak about rewards which can be onerous to quantify.

“The animals are more healthy, there’s much less labor concerned. We’re making the most of useful resource that now we have in Wisconsin and that’s the potential to boost a variety of grass, and we are able to use marginal land,” he mentioned. “These are all kinds of subjective issues, however the actual nut is that by utilizing managed grazing … you dramatically improve the quantity of forage which you could produce from pasture and the fee is extraordinarily low.”

Munsch has been preaching the financial advantages of managed grazing for years, sharing the fee breakdown from his personal farm in Coon Valley. However with the assistance of a UW-Madison initiative, that information has been changed into a software that farm service professionals and dairy producers can use to take a look at the fee breakdown of switching a farm’s animals from a confinement system to managed grazing.

The Heifer Grazing Compass seems to be on the working prices of grazing, how a lot land is required to assist a herd and the way adopting a grazing system financially compares in the long run to a farm’s present technique. 

John Hendrickson, farm viability specialist for UW-Madison’s Heart for Built-in Agricultural Programs, helped develop the software for the Grassland 2.0 undertaking. Began in 2020 utilizing a $10 million grant from the U.S. Division of Agriculture, the collaboration between researchers from UW-Madison and different universities, farmers and agriculture trade leaders is working to encourage farmers to undertake using grasslands.

“We would like farms to be financially viable and sustainable for the long run,” he mentioned. “However in fact the Grasslands 2.0 undertaking additionally has this bigger take a look at your entire panorama and local weather change and soil erosion and what can we do to have a extra sustainable agricultural system on the panorama.”

Hendrickson mentioned perennial crops have been proven to assist maintain soil in place and sequester carbon into the land.

However even with the scientific proof, Munsch mentioned it may well really feel like a leap of religion for a farm to upend their approach of working.

“All that this software does is creates a bit extra certainty in regards to the financial penalties of doing this, and the animal efficiency penalties and the decreased labor that now we have seen after we’ve checked out this on some farms,” he mentioned.

Munsch mentioned these promised financial savings are essential to dairy farmers once they’re bringing new heifers into their herd that aren’t but producing milk. He mentioned farms have at all times strived to look after these animals as cheaply as potential and the Grazing Compass can present them which mannequin is definitely essentially the most cost-effective for his or her farm.

He mentioned grazing additionally presents a chance for producers who aren’t keen on milking cows.

“They do not wish to have cattle on their farm within the winter, and they also rent themselves out as a contract grazer to somebody who does have dairy animals,” Munsch mentioned. “We’ve proven that the grazer can generate profits and the big dairy can get monetary savings in a setup like that.”

Hendrickson mentioned the software will hopefully be adopted by farm service suppliers, like these on the federal Pure Assets Conservation Companies, who can assist farmers develop an in depth plan for getting began with grazing. He’s additionally engaged on different compass instruments, together with one for beef producers and one other that can be utilized for different ruminant animals like sheep and goats.

This story republished with permission from Wisconsin Public Radio