What will the dairy of the future look like?
It doesn’t have to be new, shiny, or even large. But it does have to be efficient, sustainable, and cow-centric, according to Pennsylvania dairy farmer Steve Harnish.
Harnish and his family run Central Manor Dairy, a third-generation, 200-cow operation in Pennsylvania’s Lancaster County. On a recent episode of The Dairy Podcast Show, Harnish described “The Dairy of the Future.”
“The farm of the future is one on which you are able to meet the demands of cows, meet the demands of labor, and ensure that you’ve got market access for your milk,” Harnish stated. “Those demands have changed over time in the past, and I’m absolutely certain they’re going to continue to change in the future.”
Harnish said dairy businesses are usually shaped around the constraints of their particular geography. In California, it might be water access. In New York, it’s likely labor laws. Like a limiting nutrient in a dairy ration, those constraints are what must be considered first when planning a dairy’s future.
Central Manor Dairy has made labor efficiency one of its driving principles, due in part to the fact that land values in that region are currently upward of $30,000 per acre. Because that constraint makes it challenging for the farm to add acreage or cows, they instead choose to keep labor costs low and manage the land and cows intensely.
All of their feed, including silage, is contained in upright storge, which is both a space and time saver. “When it’s time to mix feed, we push buttons, and feed comes out,” he explained.
The farm also employs rumen boluses to ensure a “no cow left behind” approach that protects the health and productivity of every animal. While Harnish said he still has not been able to completely eliminate fresh-cow diseases and metabolic disorders, the boluses serve as a valuable bellwether in signaling early disease symptoms.
“I liken it to growing a field of alfalfa,” he noted. “You don’t want to wait until the leafhoppers have eaten all the leaves off to go treat it. You want to know when they first arrive so you can take appropriate actions and preserve the profits there.”
Grant funding also can shape the way evolutionary decisions are made on dairies. Many of the dairies in southeast Pennsylvania utilize slatted-floor barns, a trend that was driven in part by funding for the Chesapeake Bay Watershed that required six months of manure storage capacity. Because those barn foundations doubled as manure storage, new facilities could be constructed with the costs partially offset by grant support.
Looking ahead, Harnish predicted that the carbon intensity of the milk produced on farms will be a driving factor in their success. He said a helpful metric is carbon intensity per pound of milk produced. While carbon-based pricing is still an immature market, Harnish predicted that “low-carbon milk” is a trend that is not going away.
“For future projects, if your management goals align with a significant carbon reduction process and you can lower that score, do it,” he advised. “I think you should strive to be in the lower half of carbon intensity to guarantee future market access.”
On-farm manufacturing, direct-to-consumer marketing, and agritourism may be successful models for future dairy farms, depending on their size, geography, and owner preferences. Harnish advised looking long and hard at what you really enjoy doing and are good at when projecting a farm’s future.
He said seriously considering whether your greatest preference is managing people, cows, crops, marketing, talking to consumers, or something else will be a primary driver in building a future dairy business that is successful, sustainable, and fulfilling.
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