UMaine Wins $829,000 Grant to Study Organic Dairy Cropping Systems
Contact: Chris Reberg-Horton, (207) 581-2942, George Manlove, (207) 581-3756
ORONO — University of Maine researchers have received an $829,000, four-year grant to develop ways to reduce costs and increase the quality of feed for organic dairy farms.
The grant is part of a new emphasis on organic dairy research that UMaine is pursuing in conjunction with the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), the University of New Hampshire and the Maine Organic Milk Producers (MOMP).
The research will consist of a cropping systems experiment at the Witter Research Farm in Stillwater, Maine and feeding trials with dairy herds at UMaine and the University of New Hampshire. The experiment is expected to establish the most productive and profitable organic feed crops, according to Chris Reberg-Horton, assistant professor of sustainable agriculture and specialist with the UMaine Extension Office.
“I would say this is certainly the most comprehensive research on organic dairy rotations that has ever been done,” says Reberg-Horton.
The research is particularly important now, as New England organic dairy farmers look for ways to capitalize on a boom in consumer interest in organic dairy products. In Maine, which has the highest percentage of organic dairy farms in the nation, according to Reberg-Horton, grocers have complained that the demand for organic milk has exceeded the supply. Of Maine’s 380 dairy farms, 315 are conventional dairy farms and 65 are organic, with dozens more “in transition,” the three-year period in which no pesticides, chemical fertilizers, antibiotics or growth hormones can be used before cows and farms are certified by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as organic.
The small rural farms that mark the pastoral character of New England also create a niche market for organic dairy farmers. To be certified as organic, dairies must allow their cows to graze during the summer. Grazing has remained a standard practice on many small New England farms but has all but died out in other regions of the country.
The short summers in New England, however, mean a long season of feeding stored forages and grain. Feed is the largest single expense for organic dairy farmers, averaging 44 percent of the annual operating expenses, according to a study of Vermont farms. New England farmers can grow grains, but traditionally have imported grain from the Midwest and Canada. With the cost of organic grain continuing to skyrocket, farmers are evaluating whether it pays to grow their own grains.
The Witter experiments will test four basic cropping scenarios, each of which could affect an organic dairy farmer differently, depending upon the size of the farm, the resources available to the farmer and the risk the farmer can afford to take.
For farmers, the experiment will provide information that “comes down to what should their cropping system be like to maximize on-farm production of energy and protein?” Reberg-Horton says.
The project will contrast four cropping systems for growing feed for an organic dairy herd. The four systems characterize farmers with different answers to two important questions: “Should I grow grain?” and “Should I grow corn silage?”
The systems were chosen by a team of organic dairy farmers, processors and non-profit farm organizations to represent the cropping systems and rotation sequences typical in New England. An interdisciplinary team of farmers and researchers will analyze the systems for their impact on profitability, risk management, herd nutrition, nutrient cycling and weed management.
“This research is going to help not only organic farms but conventional farms,” says David Marcinkowski, dairy specialist at the University of Maine. “I think overall it would help a lot of Maine farms, whether organic or conventional, be more competitive regionally and nationally.”
Researchers will discuss results as they are obtained with organic dairy farmers at annual field days each summer, alternating between UMaine Witter Farm and a private organic farm nearby that raises organic diary cows.