Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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 Alternative cows find their dairy niche
Grass-loving dairy cow breeds offer resilience in dynamic milk economy
http://www.rodaleinstitute.org/20080502/nf1

With the arrival of spring, organic dairy farms across America are anything 
but tranquil. While farmers prepare for the work that comes with better 
weather, they are also grappling with dynamic forces that could change the 
entire dairy industry forever.

Skyrocketing grain prices, combined with ever-increasing global demand for 
dairy products, mean that your average organic dairy farmer sits at an 
all-important crossroads. Can organic dairy farmers meet the demand for their 
product while producing milk in an economically and environmentally 
sustainable manner?

Although Holsteins and Jerseys have been the breeds of choice in American 
dairy barns for decades, some farmers are thriving by working with other 
breeds. By making less milk at lower cost, hardier breeds could be poised to 
occupy a larger role in America’s dairies, particularly on organic farms.
Milking Shorthorns

People have kept Milking Shorthorn cattle in Richard Beal’s neck of the woods 
for centuries. Beal milks about 30 Shorthorns, a breed renowned for its 
resiliency and ability to thrive on a forage-based diet. Grazing his herd of 
cows on about 80 acres of land, Beal estimates that he feeds a newly 
freshened cow about 10 to 15 pounds of grain per day—a modest amount by 
modern dairy standards. With organic grains currently fetching more than $400 
per ton or more, a cow like the ones in Richard Beal’s herd could end up 
being the cow of the future.

At one time, Beal’s herd consisted almost entirely of high-producing 
Holsteins, with a few Milking Shorthorns used in his children’s 4-H projects. 
“The Holsteins made a lot of milk but I didn’t keep much money,” says Beal. 
Eventually, he converted his herd to improve his herd’s economics.

Organic since 1997, Beal’s farm straddles the road in an archetypical New 
England landscape: rolling hills interspersed with brooks and dense woods. 
It’s no accident that Beal transitioned to organic with the first wave of 
dairy farmers switching over in the area at around the same time he switched 
to milking mostly Shorthorns.

Richard Beal and Kate Dabny at Beal’s farm with Milking Shorthorn heifers.


“I think it’s a great cow for an organic producer,” says Beal, emphasizing 
that different strategies might work for different farmers. Although he sings 
the praises of his prized Shorthorns, he does still have a few Holsteins and 
Holstein-crosses left over from his old herd. “I’m probably feeding the dry 
Holsteins as much or more grain as the Shorthorns that just calved.”

With average milk production hovering around 50 pounds daily, Beal aims for 
keeping long-lived cows with very few health problems. In fact, that is one 
way Beal’s Milking Shorthorn’s achieve economic sustainability—by saving 
money with vet bills.

“The Shorthorns just seem to take care of themselves,” Beal says. ‘I haven’t 
had a vet in in about 12 years.” The herd has virtually no foot problems, 
which can devastate dairy cows. He hasn’t had to trim hooves in three years.

Although Beal says that the main management difference in keeping Shorthorns 
versus Holsteins is just feeding less grain, they may also require a more 
long-term perspective. They often live longer than the average high-producing 
Holstein, but they also take a little longer to hit their peak production.

“A lot of the time, it takes until the third lactation to really get them 
rolling,” says Beal. Heifers at Beal’s farm also aren’t rushed into their 
first pregnancy. Many times, heifers don’t calve until they are 2-and-a-half 
years old, a few months later than the age at which many dairy farmers expect.

Whereas Milking Shorthorns might require a look to the long view of farming, 
they also offer some unusual marketing potential. Beal says he has a ready 
market for bull calves in the form of New England teamsters. The striking 
Milking Shorthorn colors—red, red and white, and roan—along with strength and 
an even disposition are in demand among people training oxen across the 
region. Matched bull calves don’t stay on his farm for long, says Beal.

Even a modest amount of grain can quickly add up to a large bill on any of 
today’s dairy farms. Mary-Howell and Klaas Martens operate Lakeview Organics 
in Penn Yan, New York, which supplies organic grain for farmers in the 
northeast. Mary-Howell says the cost of organic grain has gone up 
dramatically in the past year. “It has essentially doubled,” says Martens, 
adding that grain prices are unlikely to go down in the foreseeable future.

Martens accounts the dramatic rise in grain prices to increased demand, 
estimating that the number of organic animals has recently increased by 50 
percent while organic grain acreage has only increased by 8 percent. In 
addition, demand for ethanol has subtly affected the price of organic grain, 
since many farmers who might have switched to organic grain production are 
staying conventional because of the current lucrative market for grains to 
make ethanol.

Martens does not see increased interest in lower-input cows. Instead she sees 
more farmers looking to produce alternative forages or to grow their own 
small grains. At the same time, she says, grain sales “are doing just fine.”
Normande

Mark Fellows of Chase Hill Farm in tiny Warwick, Massachusetts, has been 
rotationally grazing for 25 years. After taking over his father’s dairy farm, 
Fellows found that the Jerseys and Holsteins he was working with didn’t fit 
his goals. He was striving for an organic, grass-fed herd. “The Jerseys and 
Holsteins didn’t really hold up well,” he says “They got a little thin.” 
Fellows started breeding his cows to Normande bulls to get his farm 
functioning the way he wanted.

            A move toward hardier, thriftier cows—cows that make milk from 
grass—may be one essential way in which dairy farmers adapt to the challenges 
of the modern marketplace.

A black and white cow originating in France, Normandes have been bred for 
centuries for their ability to graze and for producing milk that makes 
outstanding cheese. Because Chase Hill Farm makes cheese for a local market, 
Fellows felt this was the breed for him. In addition, he placed importance on 
the fact that if a farmer is breeding artificially, there are many Normande 
bulls to choose from, since they are a popular cow in many parts of the world.

Currently certified organic and a 100-percent grass-fed herd, Fellows milks 
seasonally. He breeds his cows to calve March through April. All the dairy 
cows milking together at the same time of the year means that Fellows makes 
his cheese when the cows are grazing. “It doesn’t get any better than that,” 
says Fellows, stressing that grass is the premium feed for dairy cattle. 
Seasonal milking also means that the farmer gets a respite from milking– in 
Fellow’s case he says “I get three to four months off every winter.”

Fellows’ cows give an average of 7,000-8,000 pounds of milk per lactation 
with absolutely no grain. He grazes for seven months of the year, makes hay 
for the winter and saves high quality second-cut hay for the spring, when the 
cycle come around again and his cows start making milk. “We can’t keep up 
with our market for grass-fed milk,” says Fellows. In fact he feels that dual 
purpose cows like Normandes will have to play a larger role in the dairy 
industry. Citing upswings in the price of grain and fuel, Fellows says “The 
dairy industry is going to have to change.”

Mark Fellows sees an opportunity in the dairy world. He says that he knows of 
several people that are milking relatively few cows – five or six or ten – 
dual-purpose cows like Normandes or Shorthorns and they are doing quite well 
selling milk directly to an eager market. Mark Fellows’ experience with grass 
and cows tells him that more cows like his Normandes will be grazing and 
making milk in years to come.

Jerome Chateau, the president and founder of Normande Genetics, a company 
that sells Normande semen in the United States, says that more farmers have 
been looking into Normandes lately. “There’s been a greater interest over the 
past few months,” says Chateau, noting that the higher cost of grain is only 
one of the factors driving this trend.

Methods like those in practice at Mark Fellows farm may spell out more than 
just economic sustainability for dairy farmers—they may help significantly 
decrease the amount of greenhouse gases produced in the dairy industry. Cows 
walking from paddock to paddock, grazing for their feed, are less dependent 
on inputs such as grain—which is often trucked in from distant locations. 
Alternative breeds of cows may fit in well in a low-input farming model and 
may also make an important contribution to the health of the planet.
Dexter


The Dexter breed evolved from the British Isles. This one lives on the John 
O’Mear farm in Maine.

Given that higher grain prices could very well be a fixed part of America’s 
agricultural future, it’s not just Milking Shorthorns and Normandes that are 
getting a second look across the dairy industry. A wide range of hardier 
alternatives to Jerseys and Holsteins exist. Some farmers work well with 
Ayrshires, a breed that rivals the milk production of a Holstein but often 
requires less grain. At the other end of the spectrum stands the tiny Dexter. 
According to the breed standard, Dexter cows range in size from 36 to 42 
inches tall. They originated in southwestern Ireland, where they lived in a 
semi-feral state for centuries.

There’s not much history of Dexters being milked commercially in North 
America. In great Britain, however, Beryl Rutherford ran a Dexter dairy for 
decades. At one time, Rutherford milked 60 Dexters and shipped the milk 
commercially. Now in her 80s and retired, Rutherford says that Dexters can 
stand up against modern dairy breeds. “For their size they compare very well, 
and because of the consistency throughout the lactation it can surprise you. 
It also means a fair proportion of yield can be taken on maintenance rations. 
My best cow would do 800 gallons, but only gave a peak of three and a half 
gallons daily. When I was desperately trying to dry her off, she would still 
be doing one-and-one-half gallons.”

Suited to a low-input farming model, a Dexter dairy herd could be a way for 
new farmers to get started with less debt and less dependence on fluctuating 
grain prices. Unlike modern dairy breeds, Dexters have not been bred for one 
particular trait. Beryl Rutherford’s cows making a good chunk of their milk 
on maintenance rations in Great Britain may illuminate an opportunity for 
American dairy farmers caught in the crunch of high grain prices– producing 
less product while trimming costs to a minimum.

In 2005, Beryl Rutherford completed a book on her life as a farmer: My Love 
Affair with the Dexter (Triple D Books). Filled with tales of adversity and 
success that could originate from someone working with any breed of cattle, 
Rutherford also highlights some strengths of the Dexter breed. Rutherford 
writes that over the years many of her cows calved and milked well into their 
teens. Rutherford’s Dexters lived for many years with minimum shelter in 
England’s sometimes inhospitable climate. “Because of their long history in 
Ireland of neglect, they are hardy and tough and live where other breeds 
would not,” writes Rutherford.

The milk records from Rutherford’s herd from 1971 and 1972 show the potential 
for the breed but also raise the question of where cows producing this amount 
of milk fit in the modern marketplace. Many of Rutherford’s cows gave 4,000 
to 6,000 pounds of milk in a lactation, or around 500 to 700 gallons of milk.

Although this much milk might not make much of a dent paying the bills on 
many dairy farms, farms that process their own milk into a value-added 
product may be able to make use of the strengths of a breed like the Dexter 
while maximizing the value of modest milk yields.

Rosemarie Belforti runs Finger Lake Dexter Creamery in New York, milking four 
Dexters. Belforti’s Dexters stand around 36 inches—somewhere around the lower 
height limit of the breed standard. Belforti may milk small cows on a 
relatively small scale, but she says that her product, kefir cheese made 
fresh on the farm, is in big demand. “Sales have been good and consistent,” 
says Belforti.

Like many farmers working with an unusual breed, Belforti says that there is 
a large demand for the breed itself. “There is great interest in Dexters 
right now. I have people calling every week to come and look at them. I have 
a waiting list of folk who want to buy Dexters. The interest I think is 
getting bigger and bigger.”
Randall Linebacks

Jim Stampone, of Winter Hill Farm in Freeport, Maine, milks seven cows that 
are even more rare than Belforti’s Dexters. Randall Linebacks originated on 
the farm of Everett Randall in Sunderland, Vermont. Descended from cattle 
common in New England in the 18th and 19th centuries, Randalls are triple 
purpose—they historically produced meat and milk and were used as draft 
animals. Kept as a closed herd by the Randall family for 80 years, Randall 
cows exist as a genetic link to a time when cows were not pushed as far as 
they are now for milk production.

“These cows are allowed to be cows,” says Stampone, whose Randalls give about 
2 gallons of milk a day, approximately the same level of production as 
Belforti’s Dexters. Winter Hill Farm sells its dairy products at local 
stores. “Our customers just go wild for our product,” says Stampone, 
attributing the demand to his herd. “I have to believe it’s the cows,” says 
Stampone. “We’ve been good to the cows, and the cows have been good to us.”
Downsides of the alternatives

There are also some negatives to choosing an alternative breed of cow to 
milk. Beryl Rutherford points out that milking smaller cows means overhead 
for the entire farm is greater. If a farmer milks twice the number of cows to 
get the same amount of milk, overhead has to be at least double. Without 
turning the milk into a processed, value-added product like cheese—as do Jim 
Stampone, Mark Fellows and Rosemarie Belforti—that extra cost may be 
insurmountable.

Many of the rare breeds, like Dexters or Randall Linebacks, also offer the 
difficulty of assembling a herd. Dexter numbers have been on the rise 
worldwide in the past decade but Randalls still number in the hundreds. If a 
farmer wanted to buy 20 milkers of either breed, they would be hard-pressed 
to find the animals.

Many people dedicated to the survival of rare breeds have herds where the 
animals are only handled occasionally, so the animals aren’t accustomed the 
close quarters with people. Jim Stampone points out the challenge of buying 
an animal from a herd that has not been regularly handled: “If you bring a 
bred heifer home [from a herd like this], you’re going to have a handful.”
Dutch Belted

Although many dairy farmers are not in an economic position to switch to a 
breed of cattle that produces dramatically less milk than a modern Jersey or 
Holstein, all dairy farmers are looking for a way of coping with rising grain 
prices. Henry Perkins, who milks approximately 60 organic cows in Albion, 
Maine, says farmers should get a better price for milk, given the current 
cost of grain. “I’ve got to have more money or it’s bye-bye,” he says. “I 
need to eat, too.”

Perkins stopped milking purebred Holsteins about 15 years ago, crossing his 
cows to a Dutch-belted bull. Introduced into North America by P.T. Barnum, 
Dutch Belted cows have become somewhat popular in recent years as a way of 
introducing hardier blood to the standard Holstein. An extremely rare breed, 
with only approximately 200 cows of breeding age in the world, Dutch belted 
cows are also known for the hardiness and ability to turn grass into milk 
without large amounts of grain. Henry Perkins’ daughter Jackie, who works 
with her father on the farm in Albion, says they also calve easier than the 
standard Holstein and that the calves thrive. “The calves are a little bit 
tougher,” she says.

You may sacrifice quantity, but you'll get quality with the Dutch Belted. 
They do great on pasture and produce a much-sought-after butterfat.


Henry and his daughter are using their wits and expertise to balance milk 
production with health and longevity. Henry Perkins says he got into Dutch 
Belted cows almost by accident—he liked the color of one he saw at an auction 
and got her cheap because no one else was smitten by the unusual markings. 
The bargain milked well and thrived; soon the Perkins farm boasted the first 
herd with Dutch Belted genetics in the state of Maine.

Although Perkins found that the cows with more Dutch Belted genetics gained 
hardiness, he also found that when his herd approached 100-percent Dutch 
Belted status, milk production was not what he needed. Currently, the 
pendulum is swinging the other way at the Perkins farm. Henry is breeding his 
Dutch Belted-Holstein crosses with a Holstein bull, aiming to keep hardiness 
and milk production at the same time. With a wary and practiced eye towards 
farming realities, Henry Perkins says: “I’m looking for options right now. If 
they want a supply of organic milk from what they consider a traditional 
organic farm, they’re going to have to pay more or it’s going to dry up.”

Organic dairies across America are succeeding in the goal of producing a 
product that American consumers want. The question remains whether prices and 
markets—feeds and breeds—will come together in such a way that allows organic 
dairies to flourish financially. As fuel and grain prices continue to exert 
negative pressure on organic dairy farms, more pastures may become populated 
with unusual cows—cows like Rosemarie Belforti’s tiny Dexters or Richard 
Beal’s striking Milking Shorthorns. A move toward hardier, thriftier 
cows—cows that make milk from grass—may be one essential way in which dairy 
farmers adapt to the challenges of the modern marketplace.

John O'Meara farms in northern Maine, where he milks both Dexters and modern 
dairy cows.

Posted May 2, 2008