Tom Trantham's 12 Aprils Program: Revolutionizing Dairy Grazing
Vložit
- čas přidán 7. 01. 2015
- Tom Trantham's dairy farming breakthrough came from observing his cows grazing on a diverse pasture, leading to the development of the 12 Aprils Dairy Grazing Program. This innovative approach, which involves rotating crops to provide fresh forage throughout the year, resulted in increased milk production without the reliance on chemical inputs or expensive machinery.
Trantham was one of South Carolina’s top producing dairymen back in the 1980s. But he wasn’t making much money. He ran a typical confined feeding operation and his feed bill alone ate up 65 percent of his gross income. Then something happened that changed his life.
Visit Cooking Up a Story for the full post:
cookingupastory.com/tranthams...
Food Farmer Earth - a journey of wide discovery about our food
/ ffe
Subscribe to Food Farmer Earth-receive the latest videos
czcams.com/users/subscription_...
Visit Cooking Up a Story for more stories, recipes, photos, and complete written posts
cookingupastory.com
Follow us:
Facebook
/ cookingupastory
Pinterest
/ foodfarmerearth
Cooking Up a Story channel on CZcams
/ cookingupastory - Zábava
This video changed my life and helped my farm too
Truly amazing. Makes my passion for agriculture even stronger. We need more farmers like this man. All of the inputs people think they need are not necessary, things can be done without chemicals. I can only imagine the quality he gained in his milk not just the quantity! Thanks again for the great video!
That's a great story. Super interesting.
Wow, this is right down the road. Crazy.
Lucky you! The milk from Tom's cows is crazy-good!!
Great tribute to responsible and creative farming that actually harkens back to older forgotten practices. We need more of this thought process going on in agriculture.
This is so beautiful! I am seeing this now for the second time, but I do not get bored at all. So interesting... Your cows look so healthy and good!
I watch this once every few months. Amazing !
Tom's story and results are so inspiring - thanks for watching!!
What a GREAT video!
Love this !!! I've watched it about twenty times already.
Happy Cow (the name of this dairy) is about 40 minutes from our house and we used to make the trip out to stock up. Fortunately now they are selling in several local stores which saves us the 40 minute trip (Earth Fare carries it now just down the block). The best part is the price per gallon is competitive with any other milk on the shelf and beats many of the "organic" brand names. And there is butter and other dairy products available. Their yearly Happy Cow Days is a blast as well. Great video.
thank you! good to know they are selling in nearby stores. =)
From the archive: Tom Trantham was one of South Carolina’s top producing dairymen back in the 1980s. But he wasn’t making much money. He ran a typical confined feeding operation and his feed bill alone ate up 65 percent of his gross income. Then something happened that changed his life.
#dairyfarming
Riveting! So cool. Thanks.
john weeks Farmer Tom is one of my favorite farmers! Love how he listened to his cows and followed their lead.
The thing that amazes me about this, is how the US system had gotten into that situation in the first place. I can only assume it was incremental advice from industrial agriculture consultants, with agendas tied to corporatisation and providing markets for industrial agriculture inputs (seeds, fertilisers, grain feeds).
In New Zealand, until about 8 years ago, we had always been dairying with 100% grass and some hay and silage over winter. With more intensive dairying developing this century we have seen for the first time imported feed (palm kernel from Indonesia) being part of the equation, something our organic and biological farmers are resisting. Even worse, some are considering feedlots/confined feeding.
It is ironic that some of our corporate farmers are now considering moving towards the madness of feeding grain and other carbohydrates to cows, just as US and European farmers are discovering the stupidity of it, and in the process losing the primary point of difference we have enjoyed for over 100 years - grass fed animals on rotational grazing.
It is great that Trantham made his discovery, I wonder if he has met Joel Salatin yet. You have to remember though, this concept is not novel.
So basically he feeds his cows with micro greens. Brilliant!
nice system
Most honest coverage, i learnt to stay strong and trust in God to help with a way out
12 Aprils . Great idea .
Zone 8 for the win. nice job SC, GO GAMECOCKS!
Sorry this dairy is located in Clemson country :)
haha nother' tater fan.
You don’t have to go through a double mow and replant. Let them take 1/2 and move to the next paddock. As the paddocks get ahead of the grazing, mow very high and take haylage. Feed the haylage on the paddocks during hay season. Follow with sheep, they eat what the cows won’t they terminate each other’s parasites. Lastly, keep a healthy flock of Guinee and poultry, as well as put up bird houses for sanitation. You’ll have few flies.
Happy cow = healthy cow = more and better milk = profit. Easy choice.
Does the soil became more/less productive during these 20 years when "12 aprils" program was used?
Cool idea overall.
the soil maintains and increases in health by a number of methods…no-till, crop rotation, and manure spreading (when needed).
Too bad that you don't have an enterprising young man that would be willing to bring in chickens behind those cows...free range chickens and could perhaps save one bush hog cutting.