Flour might not be the first ingredient that comes to mind when thinking about feed, but Lance and Jamie Brown have been using it successfully in their herd’s ration for about five years. At Browns Dairy in Blanchard, Oklahoma, the mill byproduct helps replace a portion of the corn in the ration for their 250-cow Holstein herd—cutting costs by roughly a third.
The farm sits about 30 miles southwest of Oklahoma City and has been in Lance’s family for generations. His grandparents started with seven cows. Today, Lance represents the third generation to dairy on the operation, working alongside his father and other family members to manage 350 acres of corn, 100 acres of alfalfa, and some grazing wheat.
After graduating high school in 2000, Lance stayed on the farm as the family built a double-15 parallel parlor.
“I knew I was coming back. I grew up doing this, and I wanted to keep farming,” he says.
“We do it all as a family. We take care of the cows, do the fieldwork and raise our own heifers. We all help out where we’re needed,” Lance says.
Jamie didn’t grow up in agriculture. After working full time as a firefighter and EMT, she left that career to join Lance on the dairy. She spent her days learning the operation from him before eventually taking responsibility for raising calves. Today, she has carved out her own role on the farm while sharing the family’s work and experiences with a growing audience on YouTube.
Bringing Farm Life to YouTube
Jamie began posting short videos on Instagram, using humor and everyday farm moments to show people where their food comes from. When one viewer told her the videos helped her children understand milk production, Jamie knew she was making an impact.
“I enjoy making people laugh,” Jamie says. “I like to laugh and bring joy to people. The world’s hard enough as it is, and if I can make somebody smile or give them a reason to laugh during their day, I think that’s a good thing.”
As Jamie’s videos gained attention, her mother-in-law encouraged her to try YouTube and gave her a GoPro for Christmas in 2023. Jamie was hesitant at first, knowing longer videos would give viewers a real look at the struggles of dairy farming, including the unexpected problems and long hours that come with running the operation.
Today, she films around calf care and family life, then edits the footage herself.
“When people watch the longer videos, they get to see more of our lives and how much work goes into everything,” she says. “I think people are surprised by how stressful it can be and how much time it takes.”
The channel also gives Jamie a platform to share less familiar parts of the operation. One video followed a flour delivery from arrival to unloading, capturing viewer interest. Dairy Farmers of America later asked her to create social media content about the practice, recognizing its educational value.
Cutting Corn Costs With Flour
As corn prices climbed around 2021 and 2022, Lance started looking for ways to bring down the feed bill. When his feed broker offered flour from Shawnee Mills, about a half-hour from the farm, he saw a chance to replace some of the corn in the cows’ ration with a less expensive ingredient and save on feed costs.
During production changes, the mill collects flour as equipment is cleared between products. The material cannot be sold as food-grade flour, but it can be used in livestock feed.
“We were just looking for some way to kind of cheapen up the corn side of our ration,” Lance says.
Today, the dairy replaces about 30% of the corn portion of the total mixed ration with flour. Lance estimates the change has cut his corn bill by roughly a third. When corn prices were especially high, the family reduced the amount of corn in the ration further.
Working Through the Details
Flour can help lower the feed bill, but it takes some trial and error to work it into the ration. Lance introduced it gradually and keeps an eye on starch levels, since changing the ration too quickly can upset rumen function and affect milk production. He watches the cows and checks manure consistency to see how they’re responding.
Handling the flour adds labor, too. It arrives in large tote bags on a flatbed trailer, which Lance unloads with a forklift. He cuts open the bags and empties the flour into the commodity shed. Windbreaks near the mixer help keep the flour contained and reduce waste.
Because the flour is a fine powder, wind can scatter it during unloading and mixing. After sitting for about a week, it becomes tackier and is less likely to blow around.
Supply can be harder to predict. When the mill has flour available, the family may bring in several truckloads to stockpile. But deliveries depend on the mill’s production schedule, and the dairy sometimes goes weeks without a load. At the time of the interview, Lance had been without flour for about a month despite trying to find more.
“You’ll notice they drink more when you first put it in there, so that’s something to watch for as they get used to it,” Lance says.
Managing Drought and Planning Ahead
Drought has significantly affected pasture, hay production, and water supplies across the Oklahoma dairy. As grass growth slowed, the family began feeding hay six to eight weeks earlier than usual this year, putting additional pressure on forage inventories.
Dry conditions also kept the family from planting a planned alfalfa field. Lance expects they’ll need to buy alfalfa hay next year, adding an unexpected cost to the feed budget.
To stretch their hay supply, the family has turned heifers out to graze corn residue after harvest and is feeding more silage to young stock.
The dry weather has also made it easier to tackle fieldwork that’s difficult when soils are wet, including cleaning ditches and repairing terraces. While those jobs won’t replace the lost forage, they give the family a chance to catch up on other work around the farm.
“You just kind of set yourself up to navigate it as best you can,” Lance says. “You look at what you’ve got to work with and figure out where you can make adjustments. We’re trying to stretch what we have and make it work until we can get back to growing the forage we need.”
Building for the Future
Looking ahead, Lance hopes to improve cow comfort with additional fans and misters in the freestall barn and make greater use of technology to improve efficiency. He also wants his children to understand the work involved in running the dairy and have opportunities to contribute as they grow, ensuring the operation can continue into a fourth generation.
“I want to be able to set it up for the next generation,” he says.
Jamie’s focus remains on the calves she raises with care and attention. The barn has capacity for 400 cows, and she would like to see the herd grow to fill that space. Raising healthy youngstock is part of preparing the operation for any future expansion and maintaining herd quality.
“If the calves are growing well and we like what we see, then we know we’re on the right track,” she says. “Those calves are the future of our herd, and the work we put into them now will pay off for years to come.”
For the Brown family, planning ahead involves managing feed expenses creatively, adjusting to challenging weather conditions, and making improvements where they can. Whether Lance is evaluating alternative feed ingredients like flour or Jamie is sharing a day on the dairy with her YouTube audience, both are finding ways to adapt the operation while keeping the work moving forward—and inviting others to come along for the journey.
