Organic Dairy Production

by Sarah Flack, Jocelyn Langer (Illustrator)

Overview

There is no simple recipe for setting up and managing a successful organic dairy farm, but this handbook can act as an introduction to important issues in organic dairy production and provide today's organic or transitioning dairy farmer with an overview of the tools and ideas available.

Part of the NOFA guides. Organic Dairy Production includes information on:

• Soils, the foundation of health (manure management)
• Crop production and grazing management (forage species, pasture management, setting up a grazing system)
• Livestock (selection, nutrition, winter and summer feed considerations, seasonal milking, habitat, herd health, milk quality)
• Marketing (selling fluid milk, regulations, facility and equipment, selling raw milk)
• Recordkeeping
• The transition to organic

Features examples from various farms in the Northeast.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781603583527
Publisher:	Chelsea Green Publishing
Publication date:	04/28/2011
Series:	Organic Principles and Practices Handbook Series
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	104
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Sarah Flack is the author of Organic Dairy Production and a nationally known consultant on grazing and organic livestock. She grew up on a Vermont family farm that used management-intensive grazing and mob stocking. She later studied Holistic Planned Grazing and pursued graduate studies on pasture management at the University of Vermont. She has written extensively about grass farming and is known for teaching workshops that take a practical approach to applying the science of grazing. Sarah has successfully helped many farmers create positive change in their pastures, soils, livestock, finances, and farm-family quality of life.

Table of Contents

1. Organic certification: why, how, and what?
2. Soil: the foundation of health
3. Plants: crop production and grazing management
4. Livestock
5. Marketing
6. Record keeping
7. Economics of organic dairy production and the transition to organic
8. Nutritional qualities of grass-fed milk