Organic Valley is launching a pilot program that uses satellite photography to measure pasture health on its dairy farms, according to a company press release. This new technology aims to provide farmers with nearly real-time feedback each week to support dairy herd nutrition, improve grazing systems and address environmental concerns.
The company notes that their producers divide their perennial pastures into paddocks and move their herds frequently between them based on the maturity and quality of forage available. This frequent movement is known as “intensive rotational grazing,” and is a key practice within regenerative farming systems.
“Rotational grazing requires farmers to measure the forage in each paddock on a regular basis, a manual and time-intensive practice,” says Wade Miller, Organic Valley senior director of farm resources, in the press release. “Satellite photos measure the forage in each paddock remotely, greatly easing the farmer’s labor and time burden. Based on university trials, we expect our farmers will be able to capture at least a 20% increase in pasture utilization through the use of this technology.”
Several benefits of cattle grazing on pasture include improved soil health, greater biodiversity and increased plant biomass.
“Through this pilot program, we will test the technology on a cross-section of farms nationwide in 2021, and will make it available to all Organic Valley farms in 2022,” Miller added.
