Trantham's Sustainable 12 Aprils Dairy Grazing Program: A Top Farm that Almost Went Under
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- čas přidán 18. 03. 2011
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For more sustainable living stories, videos, and information, please visit: cookingupastory.com. 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. One day in April 1989 his cows broke out of the feeding area into a seven-acre field full of natural lush April growth-lamb's quarters, rye grass, a little clover and fescue. The next day there was a two-pound average increase per cow in milk production. Thinking maybe the cows were trying to tell him something, Trantham opened all the gates on his farm and began experimenting with grazing.
Here is a pdf of the Planting and Grazing Guide for Trantham's 12 Aprils Dairy:
www.sare.org/index.php/content...
For more information, follow links on bottom of pdf to the www.sare.org website.
Visit Tom Trantham's website, Happy Cow Creamery:
www.happycowcreamery.com
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I’m Montagnard indigenous I don’t have cow but some people in my village do their cows eat grass and plants the meat so tasty every body love it .
I have seen this video so many times and I love it every time. Grass is best!
This is a marvelous story that I'll share with more of my Wisconsin friends.
Love the university of Tom. Great farm! Great cows! What a great story! Congratulations! Thank you for sharing! I am so inspired! My grandfather was a dairy farmer. My dad earned a pHd in agriculture and moved to the city. I loved visits to the farm and understand the work ethic it takes. I worked for Barenbrug seed company a world leader in forage grasses and legumes for a while trying to teach dairy farmers how to use paddocks and grazing instead of feed systems. I was in turfgrass. The farmers we worked with could use your knowledge. Your awesome. Keep up the great work and many many April's too you sir !
@KeystoneKorner If you're ever in the Greenville, SC, area - be sure to head south to his farm. He has a creamery and store there (called Happy Cow Creamery), and yes, his milk is awesome!!
The best way for cows is grazing in field 👍👍👍
I do the same thing with u, grazing my 🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄 in palm oil plantation
@cookingupastory We're pushing hard to open up farm gate sales here to unleash the rural economy and keep the money rural. Funny thing about Tom's BushHog story at 2:00. Same thing happened to our church. We'd bought 8 acres for a playfield for our school which had been in row crop cultivation for generations. It was leveled with bulldozers, etc, & we planted grass in the fall. Next spring was a 12" *carpet of Shepherd's Purse. Couldn't afford herbicides, but my weekly mowing killed it back.
@heyerstandards way to go! Wish you the best on building your rural economy. Many more people are interested in where their food comes from, and with that they want to know and support their local farmers. One thing Farmer Tom had happening in the days I visited was farm tours. Some were school kids, others were families (many with young children). They were are fascinated to see how it all worked.
Thanks for imparting your wisdom farmer Tom. :-)
WOW so much informaiton presented in this episode that I had no clue about. I like Farmer Tom and glad that he and his cows made the way through troubling times. Wish more would take his advise and maybe there would not be so many chemicals in the milk that we use.
ty, i know a guy who raises cattle here in NC who needs to see this. he constantly complains about high chemical costs and poor grass for the cows to graze on.
i love watching this video, i watch it every few months and i love it every time such a great story :) thnx
this is for anyone with the muddy road problem he fixed with the geo-cloth... I was making gravels paths and had run out of geo liner. After having a roof job on my house I was hit with a $300 bill to landfill the old shingles. DUH! I used that roofing material under the gravel path at 4-6 inches and it's still there today after 15 years. I was convinced of the ecological safety of this after moving a pile of shingles only to find hundreds of worms in the layers they LOVED the stuff.
Farmer Tom is what true America is about
Very inspiring video
great work! I'm an experienced New Zealand dairy farmer but live upstate New York now. My family moved here 7 years ago mainly for the kids to go to school cause my wife is American. I transitioned an organic dairy here in NY 2008 but the family decided to shut the dairy down. I really miss grazing and milking cows. The winters are very cold here but i always want to achieve my dream and own some land and milk cows somewhere. Its very hard to start off but with my experience i really feel as though something will come along one day. The challenge i found was trying to get a conventional US cow grazing and not looking back to the barn for grain. I cut off grain feeding and used MIG cut labor costs. Keep up the great work i wish there were lots more farmers like you doing this.
Denise Steixner
Hi Tom, yes i really miss the land and cows and understand totally what you are thinking. We dont have much money what we have is all tied up in the house but wish i knew we could sell our house and end with extra money to buy a very small farm and milk grass fed cows for raw milk. I've been drinking raw milk for 25 years and my family and grandparents back in NZ have done so as well for generations. We are all healthy. Its an exciting industry to get involved with here in the US and agree with you there is a large market for raw milk, grass fed butter & cheeses. Maybe we should move to Maine but isn't it expensive there? More than NY? Do you know a website i can look at that has small cheap farms for sale in Maine?This raw milk deal really excites me. Because if i were to go farming again i would not feed grain only grass under a 30 day rotationally grazing system during the growing season. Keep grasses productive, healthy, and growing by using cows as the mower if pastures do out grow the DM intake of the cows use a mower to cut the pasture 12 hours ahead of when cows are due to graze. They love wilted fresh grass. Dry off over winter for 2 or 3 months depending on the situation and feed molasses, dry hay and alittle balage to cows. I would milk 4 cows to the acre (have small acreage) over the grazing season buy in feed and have very little machinery. Make the cows work to eat grass they have to be aggressive grazers and not look to the barn for feed. I used NZ genetics because i found US cows are just not bred to be as aggressive grazers as NZ cows. I think mixing the brreds up and experimenting that way would be great say Ayrshire x with a Jersey that way you get the hardiness of an Ayrshire with the milk solids of a Jersey. I milked goats once for a friend and didnt like it. Sure they are cheaper to buy and easier to manage but they dont have the appeal as cows do for me. Goats have to be molly coddled as well so indoor housing over winter is necessary. I outwintered my cows with access to the barn if they wanted to and all the cows were outside in the fresh air. Nice talking and keep in touch. Maybe Maine would be a good choice for us. My kids have almost finished college and we are not tied down to anything except this house.
Ashley Clements and Denise Steixner, have you checked out Tom Trantham's website, Happy Cow Creamery? There is more information on his 12 Aprils system there and you'll see what he is doing now. He may be able to answer some of your questions via his website. There's a link to it in the description box above. Best of luck on your dairy endeavors!
If you start a farm again i would like to work your farm its my long time hobby to work this type of farm ok my mail address(31mahabub@gmail.com)
I meant 4-6 inch depth of shingles then cover with equal amount of gravel. You may have to do a deeper amount with tender hooves going over the shingle and nails though... Normally dirt just swallows gravel. It's a cheap fix if you are strapped and can get the shingles delivered.
Well done, Farmer Tom! I bet products made from your milk are delicious.
Fantastic, thanks for all your insight!
Great Video! Going on my playlist! Thanks
I really enjoyed it. Thanks
Thanks, @baddogonline - Farmer Tom had an amazing story to share.
It's not just the protein, the ENERGY levels are higher in the top portion of the plant. The top receives more sunlight. Plants are solar collectors. Yes, all the 'mowing' could be done with managed grazing, and allowing the cattle or other livestock to trample the organic material onto the ground w/out diesel fuel & renew the forages w/out having to re-plant. Holistic Management Int'l is one info resource.
@firee812 I added a link to the pdf of the crops he uses up in the description box just below the video - click 'show more'. Or, you might try to reach him thru his farm website, happycowcreamery [dot] com - he might have a better idea for you.
Great information
Ok this is awesome, we do rotational grazing, but how do you do this in Ohio in the winter? Are there winter crops that would work here?
I am developing a small sustainable farm in north Georgia. Is it possible for me to come by the farm to see your operation? I want very much to learn your system. I grew up on my parents dairy farm in the 1950s, but they went the chemical way. I want to leave a legacy to my children, grandchildren and great grandchildren A natural non-chemical sustainable farm . I would appreciate you letting me know. Thank you. Blessings. Dr. Kathy
Kathy, Farmer Tom has nothing to do with this channel. The best way to reach him is to google 'Happy Cow Creamery' and use the contact info you find that way. I'm sure he'd be happy to talk to you further. Best of luck and much success on creating your farm!
@heyerstandards Thanks for sharing with your friends - it's something that might work for some dairy farmers there, too. =)
COWS ARE SO CUTE, MY UNCLE HAD A FARM AND COWS, PIGS ECT ECT ECT.
@praterclp. Yes, it works for him and it might work for some others too.
No doubt there are other sustainable dairies closer to you than Ohio, some using methods more sustainable than frequent mowing and re-planting. Eat Wild dot com is one great place to find sustainably produced foods local to you. Enjoy!
Other resources you could check out are Holistic Management International. Dry cows or beef cattle are relatively easy to over winter on grass, even in Ohio. Greg Judy uses hay only a couple weeks/winter at most, and finishes beef on grass only. Google Greener Pastures Farms. The methods can be adapted to dairy. Others are doing this with dairy operations, but sorry, I don't have a link. Dairy farmers are too busy to write books or websites. (grin!)
Anyone know if that farm's milk is sold in Florida? I'm sure it's the best there is.
@olov244 I hope he has a chance to watch it. I would think he'd be able to grow many of the crops Farmer Tom did. Might help him out.
Just a quick quick question, does he bush hog and plant the no-till the first day then five days later bush hog again or does he bush hog wait five days bush hog again and plants the no-till
like pasture cropping.. he could have used turkey or even geese.. for that second graze which kicks the grass into dormant
Well, that was pretty interesting. Not as interesting as a action packed movie of course, but insightful.
Why does he need to mow and replant his grass? Won't it grow back once the cows are moved to a different pallid?
@dojochuck Google "Happy Cow Creamery" - I bet they could tell you where to find some. It is real good - wish we had some around here!
As I am developing a small