What do our cows eat?
We are frequently asked something along the lines of, “Would you say that your cows are 100% grass fed? Do you consider it necessary to supplement their pasture diet?”
Recently this was asked in the context of “I was happy to see on your website that your cows are grass fed. The farm I currently have shares with announced that their herd was no longer going to be 100% grass fed, that the pasture was somehow insufficient for the nutrition of their cows and that it was necessary to supplement their grass diet with some small grains. I had always thought that grain wasn't the best for cows, but maybe I don't fully understand.”
To this I reply something along the lines of this:
You are right and your current farmer is right. There is a dichotomy here. Cows are meant to be grown on grass, this is the ideal. However this ideal is much easier to meet with beef breeds of cows. Beef cattle’s metabolic demands are sooooo much lower than dairy breeds.
Try thinking about grains in a different way, not only as a component of fast growing feedlot operations, which is bad on so many levels, but rather high dollar supplements for quality grazing operations. When grown in more traditional ways and harvested properly and fermented, grains are supplements adding to the animal’s health not a detrimental aspect to be avoided at all costs. There are of course caveats, how was the grain grown, what variety is it, how was it prepared and stored and very importantly in what context is it being fed and how much are you feeding and why.
In the context of an intensive rotational grazing situation where a cow needs a boost, a small boost. I don’t see you have a problem. This is ideal animal husbandry to meet the deficits of the cow’s diet. On the other hand, if grain is a farm's crutch because they don't want to do the work of intensive grazing, and it is work, or are looking for a shortcut feeding lots of the stuff to make up for crummy over taxed land, that is a bad thing for the land, animals and people. When grain is the mainstay of a cow's diet, something is certainly wrong, and there will be lots of health issues that come with it, but to say no grain ever is often a reactionary response generated to calm partially informed, well meaning people.
My wife and I began our dairy as once a day, grass only operation. We trained under some of the finest graziers in the world and thought we had this all figured out. We had some very rough years, low quality milk and many sick cows before we recognized that there might be something we were missing. Strategically feeding high quality supplemental feeds for short periods during the grazing season improved all aspects of our operations. Animals stopped being sick, had no issue breeding back anymore and our milk quality improved drastically.
Dairy cattle have been bred to make a lot of milk, huge amounts of butterfat, and protein in comparison to their beef counterparts. For everything to go well, the pasture they need to support their metabolic needs has to be fabulous, garden of Eden, quality stuff. There are times of the year where we grow this quality forage, but it certainly isn't the whole season. In a perfect world with perfect weather and the best conserved feeds possible, it might be possible to feed no supplemental energy or grains for dairy cows. Unfortunately there are times during the year where the grasses go dormant due to heat or drought stress and there is only fiber and some protein in the grass for the cows. The plants actually transfer most of their sugars to their roots, so the cows can't take the grasses sugar reserves. This forage may look nice, but will not meet a dairy cow’s needs. Dairy cattle are bred back after 100 days of calving and produce lots of milk through most of their pregnancy. This high milk output in conjunction with growing a calf puts dairy cattle in a different feed quality league from beef cows and creates the demand for the higher octane fuel so to speak. Low energy high protein forage makes for a plethora of negative outcomes.
How we feed our animals
Our cows graze from early March til late December (weather permitting). Almost all of the grazing season they are fed no small grains; exceptions to this are for when the pasture quality is low during times of drought or too much rainfall where the cows need a nutritional boost. When we do occasionally add some grain to supplement their forages, they are fermented, whole plant, and no more than 5# per head mixed into their hay so as to not upset rumen ph and maintain CLA levels; it is all grown by us (if we ever have to buy in some, it is sourced by a neighbor with the same growing practices), always non-GMO grain which is not sprayed.
For about 2.5 months of the winter, when the cows' diet consists primarily of conserved dry hay and fermented grasses; we do include a small amount of supplemental carbs (whole plant fermented grain) to help balance out energy deficient conserved feeds. Fermenting the small grain and feeding it along with the whole plant (lots of fiber) drastically changes the quality of digestion over a dry grain that lacks the high fiber of the rest of the plant. Dairy cows require optimal feed quality at all times due to the high metabolic demands of lactation and pregnancy. This high dollar supplemental feed keeps the cows from low energy diseases like ketosis which cause infertility and gross tasting milk. We grow 100% of our cow's feed for the winter. The exceptions being their kelp and other minerals they eat free choice.