US grass potential barely tapped

Missouri Department of Agriculture Deputy Director Dennis Baird, left, and state senator Dan Clemens at Mystery Creek Fieldays this year. Photo: Dennis Baird

01-09-2010 | Richard Rennie

The hunger for pastoral dairy systems is growing in the United States as producers consider options to free themselves from the high cost of grain-sourced confinement feed systems.

With an impending rise in grain prices looming because of the Russian grain crisis, interest in taking advantage of pastoral capabilities are stronger than ever.

The interest in using the grass for dairy production in states like Missouri has also grown in the past five years thanks to the efforts of various New Zealand investors. Operations like Grasslands, with NZ CEO Gary Townshend, have paved the way for locals in Missouri to at least consider options that incorporate grassland dairying.

This operation milks 6500 cows, has 5000ha and is planning future conversions that include the planting of ryegrass pastures.

Deputy Director of Missouri Department of Agriculture Dennis Baird told Country-Wide that dairy cow numbers in Missouri had plummeted over recent decades, from 1 million in 1945 to less than 100,000 now.

"We see grassland farming as a way to secure dairying in the state; most of our dairy farmers are over 60 on small farms and there is little interest among their kids to go dairying," Baird said.

"We see the Kiwi system as a means of invigorating not only production, but also interest among a younger generation."

A system that can accommodate younger managers, contract milkers and sharemilkers provides a pathway to ownership missing in many states, including Missouri. Cost-wise, grass systems provide a means of widening the profit margins for farmers.

Locals may have been sceptical about NZ methods at first, but not now: Another NZ set-up, part-owned by equity farm group Spectrum, attracted more than 3000 farmers when it held an open day.

Baird sees considerable potential in a state with 11.6 million hectares of farmland of which only 2m ha is farmed intensively. Land prices are cheap at around US$5000/ha, and production focus is to drive better cash returns rather than capital gains.

The market was subject to considerable government intervention, he said, setting the floor price for milk through its barrel cheese price, but overall the US dairy industry was still in a significant cash deficit situation.

Baird believes the industry is under siege by groups like the Sierra Club and the US Humane Society, with multimillion-dollar budgets to target farming practices.

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