Grass Fed Dairies

The first post on the Dairy show is not a video, but is at least about Dairy.  It won’t be until November until the show premieres, so stay Tuned.  In the mean time I will occasionally put up dairy related posts.

While at the Slow Food Nation in San Francisco for Labor Day weekend I went on an amazing “Slow Journey” (bus trip) to a family run grass fed dairy. 

We left from the San Francisco civic center and headed towards Merced County. After about 2 hours of driving our full coach pulled up onto the Burroughs ranch.  The Burroughs family started farming just before the turn of the 20th century and moved to California in 1906.  The land we stood on this day was purchased by the family in 1971 and was a mixture of almond groves, dairy pastures, and the family residences.

At the ranch we met Ward Burroughs, his father, his wife Rosie, their children Benina (she runs the almond business), Christina and her husband Brian (they run Full Circle Dairy), and Meredith and her husband Zeb (who run California Clover Leaf Dairy).  We were also introduced to two very special guests Joel Salatin (of Polyface Farms), who was one of the heroes from The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan, and Jerry Brunetti.

From where we stood we could see the cows out on the pasture.  The family started raising pastured dairy cows in 1999.  This project was started by Ward, Rosie, and Christina and is now managed by Christina and Brian as California Clover Leaf Dairy.  They have approximately 500 cows that are milked twice a day.  The milk is contributed to the co-operative Organic Valley and is only distributed in California. When not being milked, the cows are out in the pasture feeding on grasses, based on a rotational grazing schedule.  The cows walk back to the milking parlor twice a day for milking.

In a rotational grazing system, animals are kept on a designed area of pasture that is surrounded by a lightweight electric fence.  The size of the pasture is calculated based on the size of the heard and the conditions of the grass.  Everyday the pasture area is changed by adjusting the links of the fence.  The animals move on their own accord to the new area, because of the availability of the grass.  The animals are rotated to new areas daily and return approximately every 15-30 days to the pastured land, based on the rate of growth of the grasses. This is an incredibly amazing and efficient sustainable system.

After the introduction we boarded the bus (we were behind schedule) and took a tour of the almond groves.  The family is in the process of converting their almond groves over to organic.  At the present time though, the organic market is not large enough to support and entire orchard.

The organic orchards were especially interesting though, because the trees were planted further apart and in one area there were grasses planted between the tree’s.  Almonds are harvested using different machines to shake the trees, blow the almonds into rows on the ground, and then pick them up.  Growing grasses between the tree’s obviously makes this process much more difficult, but the Burroughs are starting to do this, because they are planning to allow animals to graze on this land.

This is something they are already doing in the pastures.  We stopped in a field that had recently been grazed by the cattle, but was currently the domain of chickens.  The chickens follow the cows, most effectively 3 days after they graze.  The chickens prefer the now shorter grasses and eat the larvae out of the cow manure.  This keeps the land and the chickens healthy, without the need for addition fertilizer or grains.

We took a trip to the other section of grass fed dairy called California Clover Leaf Farms, which is run, by Meredith and Zeb.  They also have around 500 animals that are milked twice a day.   The animals on both dairies live on a more natural cycle than at most other farms. Every year these cows are expected to give birth.  The calves are fed milk and grass.  The cows are also given a break each year from milking of somewhere between 30 and 60 days.  This provides a more natural cycle and gives a break to the family.  In a more “traditional” dairy, the animals are milked twice a day 365 days a year.

Interestingly, Ward’s brother, whose land is abutted by his own, runs a “traditional” confinement style dairy.  We drove though it and it provided quite a contrast to the grass fed dairies.  Here approximately 1500 animals are kept in large dirt pens and fed grain. The smell was not too appealing.  I’m not going to say much more on this, except this is the way the majority of the milk in our country is derived.

From here we visited the young calves and then had a lunch at a castle.  Yes, a castle.  One of the Burroughs' neighbors, Kasper Noz, who has been building this amazing structure by hand since 1988 and plans to spend at least another 20 years building.  Here we were introduced to local wines, cheeses, and chefs.  After lunch we re-boarded the bus where we enjoyed some local beers and attended an amazing lecture, at the California State University campus in Turlock, titled All Flesh is Grass by Joel Salatin and the benefits of this system on health by Jerry Brunetti.  You can learn more about these topics in The Omnivore's Dilemma, In Defense of Food, and a new movie called Food Inc.

It was quite an amazing trip and I want to thank Rosie Burroughs for doing an outstanding job organizing it!  Hopefully we will feature the Burroughs family on an episode of The Dairy Show in the future.