Identify the economically optimal forage mixture, including grazed forage, hay and silage produced on-farm, and supplemental feed produced off-farm, under varying organic milk production levels

• Researchers created an economic cost and return model for a representative organic dairy farm in the Mid-South United States. Using a linear programming approach, they compiled production values related to feed costs, farm resource allocation, and enterprise mix problems.
• Researchers assumed that growers would be producing typical forage crops for an organic dairy in the Southern U.S., in addition to milk.
  • Hay crops: alfalfa-grass mix hay, corn silage, sorghum-sudangrass, annual ryegrass.
  • Grazed pasture mixes: two warm season grass-legume mixes, one cool season grass-legume mix, and one warm season grass-legume-brassica mix. Forage yields for these mixes were evaluated in small plot trials in Tennessee and Kentucky across three years.
• Model assumptions were based on a 50-head Holstein herd with 125 acres total of pasture and hay land.

Understand the trade-offs of different whole-farm approaches for organic dairy feed management

• The cost and return model was used to quantify how much feed could be produced by growing different types of hay and forage at different ratios, how much each of these scenarios would cost, and how much additional feed would be required to maintain a healthy ration for the entire herd.
• Researchers used the model to ensure appropriate feed availability throughout the year, adjusting hay and forage production seasonally and in response to dynamic feeding needs. This included assuming a 65-day dry period for milk production each year.
• The researchers also evaluated the model with different market-based scenarios for hay prices and other supplemental feed prices, both to understand how growers’ costs would increase when buying more feed and how much money growers could earn by selling feed.

Evaluate milk production levels and the sensitivity of farm net returns to milk price changes, including an evaluation of farm returns when using organic practices but not receiving organic price premiums

• Researchers evaluated the economic model under different milk production and pricing scenarios.
• Importantly, the model was run at four different levels of milk production, each necessitating different amounts of feed. These levels were 40, 45, 50, and 55 lbs of milk per cow per day.
• The study used a baseline organic milk price of $30 per hundredweight, but also evaluated returns for different price levels by performing a sensitivity analysis.