After 20 years of dairy farming, Bob and Karen Breneman had reached a turning point. Labor was in short supply, machinery needed to be replaced, and the family wasn”t satisfied with the income they were earning for all their hard work.

“A lot of money went in, and a lot went out,” Karen Breneman says. “We could see no future in replacing the equipment. It seemed like a treadmill, like we weren”t moving ourselves forward.”
Like most Wisconsin dairy farmers, the Brenemans were operating a confinement operation. Their cows spent most of their time in the barn or exercise yard. The Brenemans spent much of their time raising and harvesting feed, mixing rations and hauling manure.

Thinks changed after Bob Breneman attended one of Wisconsin”s first grazing conferences. The couple decided to switch to intensive rotational grazing, a system in which feed themselves by grazing on pasture, rather than being fed a grain-based ration in the barn. The “rotational” part means that cows are moved frequently to new paddocs to keep the pasture producing top-quality feed.

Since the couple adopted managed grazing in 1993, they have significantly decreased the need for equipment and chemicals – and saved themselves a lot of money.

Success stories like the Breneman”s are common among farmers who make the switch to pasture-based dairying, according to “Pastures of Plenty,” a report prepared by Tom Kriegl of the UW-Madison Center for Dairy Profitability and Ruth McNair, editor at the Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems. The report contains an analysis of data based on data from commercial farms.

Among the conclusions:

? Wisconsin and New York graziers earn more profit, calculated both per cow and per hundredweight of milk produced, than their confinement counterparts.

? Managed grazing techniques consistently resulted in higher net farm incomes lower costs per hundredweight than traditional and large confinement farms in Wisconsin.

? Farmers who make the transition from confinement to grazing do not need to experience financial hardship.

Brent McCown, director of CIAS, the UW-Madison”s sustainable agriculture research center, says the research shows that pasture-based farming – sometimes dismissed as hobby farming – deserves a serious look.

Often in conventional dairy farming, everything looks good on paper but the farm is not really keeping up financially, McCown points out. The owners usually have two choices: add more cows to generate more revenue, or switch to grazing to reduce costs.

“Pasture-based farming is a viable alternative for people wanting to change their economic situation,” McCown says. “People farming for the first time are considering managed grazing. The lower capital costs make pasture-based farming more attractive compared to conventional. You can make the same amount of disposable family income with fewer cows and less stress.”

And as the Breneman”s story illustrates, an added benefit is improved quality of life.
“When we were farming conventionally, all our energy and time were wrapped up in the farm,” Karen Breneman says. “We had no time for personal interests, no time for church or community, and no time for the family. We weren”t happy with that.”

Of their 240-acre farm, the family has planted 200 acres of pasture for their 80 milk cows. Now, they only need one tractor with a spin seeder and some spot chemicals to keep the thistles at bay.

If they had continued using confinement farming, Karen Breneman thinks they”d be out of business. But by switching to managed grazing, she and her husband run the operation by themselves, find time for hobbies and community life, and have improved their financial situation.

Karen Breneman calls grazing a “win-win-win” situation. It”s better for the farmers, the cows and the environment. “There is satisfaction in seeing the farm under grass cover 12 months out of every year,” she says. “Knowing that we are not damaging the environment is very satisfying.”

“Being involved with CIAS has given us connections with people on a different level – at the university, with researchers, with policy makers. We have more of a voice, and the grazing message can get out through things like ”Pastures of Plenty.” ”