Ooo Sarah. Get ready for a bunch of comments from startups in farm data, robotic milkers, invisible fence systems plus all the impact funds that sold VC model-type pay outs on the scheme of transitioning farms.
Totally in agreement. I would add that diversity is a central component of regenerative agriculture and it also doesn't marry with large scale for the reasons you mention, and also some additional reasons regarding markets and know-how. We have actually seen all this play out in organics over 50 years now and organic and regenerative are more or less the same - in principle.
I really appreciate your posts as someone who studied sustainable ag/pasture management. You're writing what I learned after meeting countless farmers doing all scales of work.
I've always been of the mindset that it's those mid-sized commercial farms that are going to move the needle on soil-building practices. We just need the infrastructure and procurement models to support them. I come from the fresh produce world, so it was especially interesting to see that same dynamic play out in dairy.
Very well laid out arguments. Even at a 100 cows, I struggled to fully transition my former dairy to a regenerative grazing dairy because of some of the same challenges you laid out for a 5k cow dairy transitioning. It is sometimes hard to dabble in regenerative practices, because then you are trying to have a foot in both worlds. Then again, I still believe there are creative ways to make reg ag practices profitable on large scale acreage if you can convince landholders to stack enterprises (i.e. - grazing cover crops in between primary crops), but that can be a hard argument to win.
Well written post that largely applies to any commodity farming. That said, the problem here isn’t necessarily the scale, but the fact that the farmer produces a commodity. The price of a milk, in this example, is simply given by the market forces. These forces do not (or only partially) take into account all the negative (and positive) externalities that the farmer co-produces. If we could bake those factors into the price, be it through regulation, consumer demand or some more exotic type of remote verification + new financial instruments (like what we are trying to do with carbon credits) - maybe, just maybe then, the incentives would change and even a commoditized product could be profitably regen.
I attended the American Cheese Society’s Annual conference a few weeks ago. One of the keynote speakers was Joe Tomandl, founder of Dairy Grazing Alliance. The Alliance is working on scaling pastured dairy farms by replicating a workable size of pastured dairy farm in a defined geographic region. In this way, they are scaling up through replication rather than one dairy farm getting bigger (milking more cows). It’s a very powerful concept. Check them out if you aren’t familiar with their work. https://www.dga-national.org/
One factor with regard to dairies is that climate determines how much grazing can be done year-round. For example, in the Tillamook area, it’s just too plain wet and muddy to have the cows on grass year-round—then it becomes an issue of mud control, problems with mastitis due to udders dragging in the mud, etc…and issues change from region to region.
(spouse was a former small dairy farmer in the Tillamook area—45 cow dairy, and while the cows grazed in summer, they were indoors in winter)
I interact a lot with regen-ag especially on LinkedIn and substack.
I am also active in helping sustainable smallholders in Africa.
I can honestly say that I have rarely read such grounded (no pun intended!) and well argued insight.
I must admit that our focus is on arable and horticulture (I was however on a UK Government dairytech mission to New Zealand a couple of years ago, our platform helps with toxic runoff etc.) but similar issues remain.
Our solution is to put 'precision engineering' at the regular farmer level, tailoring the science and technology to his situation with practical granularity.
Would be great to work with you, so please respond.
Hoping to see your good sense prevail over all the wishful thinking!
Ooo Sarah. Get ready for a bunch of comments from startups in farm data, robotic milkers, invisible fence systems plus all the impact funds that sold VC model-type pay outs on the scheme of transitioning farms.
Totally in agreement. I would add that diversity is a central component of regenerative agriculture and it also doesn't marry with large scale for the reasons you mention, and also some additional reasons regarding markets and know-how. We have actually seen all this play out in organics over 50 years now and organic and regenerative are more or less the same - in principle.
I really appreciate your posts as someone who studied sustainable ag/pasture management. You're writing what I learned after meeting countless farmers doing all scales of work.
I heard another version of: “the most valuable input on a farm is the farmer’s shadow.” :
"The best fertilizer is the farmer's footsteps"
I've always been of the mindset that it's those mid-sized commercial farms that are going to move the needle on soil-building practices. We just need the infrastructure and procurement models to support them. I come from the fresh produce world, so it was especially interesting to see that same dynamic play out in dairy.
Very well laid out arguments. Even at a 100 cows, I struggled to fully transition my former dairy to a regenerative grazing dairy because of some of the same challenges you laid out for a 5k cow dairy transitioning. It is sometimes hard to dabble in regenerative practices, because then you are trying to have a foot in both worlds. Then again, I still believe there are creative ways to make reg ag practices profitable on large scale acreage if you can convince landholders to stack enterprises (i.e. - grazing cover crops in between primary crops), but that can be a hard argument to win.
Well written post that largely applies to any commodity farming. That said, the problem here isn’t necessarily the scale, but the fact that the farmer produces a commodity. The price of a milk, in this example, is simply given by the market forces. These forces do not (or only partially) take into account all the negative (and positive) externalities that the farmer co-produces. If we could bake those factors into the price, be it through regulation, consumer demand or some more exotic type of remote verification + new financial instruments (like what we are trying to do with carbon credits) - maybe, just maybe then, the incentives would change and even a commoditized product could be profitably regen.
I attended the American Cheese Society’s Annual conference a few weeks ago. One of the keynote speakers was Joe Tomandl, founder of Dairy Grazing Alliance. The Alliance is working on scaling pastured dairy farms by replicating a workable size of pastured dairy farm in a defined geographic region. In this way, they are scaling up through replication rather than one dairy farm getting bigger (milking more cows). It’s a very powerful concept. Check them out if you aren’t familiar with their work. https://www.dga-national.org/
re scaling: did you see this?
https://www.farmersweekly.co.nz/news/dairy/couple-marvel-at-100000-cow-china-dairy-farm/
One factor with regard to dairies is that climate determines how much grazing can be done year-round. For example, in the Tillamook area, it’s just too plain wet and muddy to have the cows on grass year-round—then it becomes an issue of mud control, problems with mastitis due to udders dragging in the mud, etc…and issues change from region to region.
(spouse was a former small dairy farmer in the Tillamook area—45 cow dairy, and while the cows grazed in summer, they were indoors in winter)
Hi Sarah,
As a co-founder shareholder and advisor to:
SoilWater.com
I interact a lot with regen-ag especially on LinkedIn and substack.
I am also active in helping sustainable smallholders in Africa.
I can honestly say that I have rarely read such grounded (no pun intended!) and well argued insight.
I must admit that our focus is on arable and horticulture (I was however on a UK Government dairytech mission to New Zealand a couple of years ago, our platform helps with toxic runoff etc.) but similar issues remain.
Our solution is to put 'precision engineering' at the regular farmer level, tailoring the science and technology to his situation with practical granularity.
Would be great to work with you, so please respond.
Hoping to see your good sense prevail over all the wishful thinking!
Kind regards
Raymond