Dairy

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Videos from the Field

SARE, in partnership with Cooking Up A Story, has produced a series of how-to videos showcasing production and marketing practices used by some of the nation’s most successful sustainable farmers and ranchers.

Cover of SARE's 2015-16 issue of a man inspecting a leaf through a magnifying glass

2015/2016 Report from the Field

Read about SARE-funded work in the areas of sustainable dairy cropping systems, soil health assessments, nutrient management, cover crops, beginning farmers, pollinators, technical assistance programs for women farmers, and more. This edition includes highlights of projects funded through the graduate student program, and the highly regarded Sustainable Agriculture Fellowship, a professional development program coordinated by SARE and NACAA.

Joel Myers at NoTill Workshop

No-Till and Cover Crop Innovations Increase Dairy Profits

Summertime for dairy farmers in New England is anything but slow. Silage corn must be planted and harvested in a short window to provide high-quality forage for cattle, leaving little time to plant cover crops to replenish the soil. Under pressure to get corn planted early, farmers may delay the first cutting of hay, sacrificing […]

cows eating grass

Alternative Continuous-Cover Dairy Forage System for Profitability, Flexibility and Soil Health

In a SARE-funded study in New York, a team of farmers, researchers and consultants addressed economic, labor and weather constraints in dairy farm rotations by developing an alternative forage cropping system with multiple options to produce high-quality forages. This system produces forage with yields comparable to traditional cropping systems, and is based on soil health management.

Low-Till Forage Production

To fill their need for year-round, inexpensive forages, California dairy producers typically plant and harvest a series of forage crops – small grains, corn for silage, milo and sorghum sudan. While this requires considerable tillage and seed-bed preparation ahead of each successive crop, the production systems lend themselves to conservation tillage approaches developed in other […]

Cows walking in pasture.

Sustainable 12 Aprils Dairy Grazing

When rising feed costs threatened to put his once-successful confined feeding dairy out of business, Tom Trantham made the switch to a pasture-based rotational grazing system, and now his operation has never been stronger.

A field of cows eating grass inside of a wired fence.

Experimental Farm Helps North Carolina Farmers

Specialty crop farmer Alex Hitt hesitated when a team of scientists asked him to help launch a research project. Designed to test sustainable practices under the same skies and soil conditions as North Carolina's working farms, the 2,100-acre experimental farm would truly be a long-term commitment. Major results couldn't be expected for about seven years. […]

youth renewing the countryside book

Youth Renewing the Countryside

This full-color book profiles 50 inspiring young people—one from every state—who are revitalizing rural America with new enterprises.

Dairy Your Way Cover

Dairy Your Way

This publication was created to provide information that will help producers explore the many choices available for today’s dairy farms. This book is not intended to be a how-to dairy guide or manual. While there is no one-size-fits-all answer for dairy farmers seeking success as milk producers, there are many options that can be profitable and satisfying.

The New American Farmer

The New American Farmer, 2nd Edition

Hailing from small vegetable farms, cattle ranches and grain farms covering thousands of acres, the producers in The New American Farmer, 2nd edition have embraced new sustainable approaches to agriculture.

Black and white cows grazing through in a field in a line

12 Aprils Grazing Dairy Program

Tom Trantham's Twelve Aprils grazing program has been part of three Southern Region SARE projects. Tom has influenced scores of experienced and beginning dairy farmers through presentations at conferences and magazine stories. This online manual addresses the most often asked questions about his system.