Small organic dairies try for bovine bliss
BY SHANNON FINNELL
I
f one thing is clear from omnivores committed to eating organic, it’s
that they care about the lives of the animals whose milk and meat they
consume. Just look at the premise of the California Milk Advisory Board’s
multi-million dollar, decade-long “Happy Cows Come From California” ad
campaign (which represents both conventional and organic). “I love it
here!” exclaims one cow, surrounded by rolling green pastures.
The concerns of milk and cheese lovers worried that their dairy products
are ethically curdled would likely be alleviated by a visit to Jon Bansen’s family
dairy farm, Double J Jerseys, south of Monmouth. Bansen learned dairy farming
from his father in a small non-organic operation, but he turned more and more to
organic practices in the ‘90s before joining the Organic Valley cooperative in 2000.
Bansen has been turning the cows out to pasture more and more over the years,
perfecting methods that resulted in his herd of about 180 Jersey cows spending
about 20 hours a day outside in a system called “intensive rotational grazing.”
Organic hasn’t always translated to
outdoor cows. Before last year, the National
Organic Program’s rule mandating access
to pasture was vague. This left quite the
loophole in organic policy, creating a wide
berth between farms that favored a lot of
pasture time and others that, while free
from antibiotics and hormones, minimized
their cows’ time on grass.
In May 2010, Oregon’s Confi ned
Animal Feeding Operation program levied
a $20,000 fi ne against a Wilsonville area
organic dairy that provides milk to the
Pacifi c Village brand (sold locally at Kiva
and Market of Choice) for manure-related
violations. Neighbors told The Oregonian
12 AUGUST 18, 2011
EUGENE WEEKLY
that the cows were rarely given the
opportunity to graze.
A month after the record-setting fi ne,
the National Organic Program updated its
regulations on how cows get their food.
Before then, organic cows and other multi-
stomached, cud-chewing animals were
required to have some access to pasture
during the grazing season, but the level of
access was unspecifi ed. The NOP realized
that consumers who favored organic
animal products weren’t just concerned
with limiting their intake of antibiotics and
synthetic hormones; they also wanted to
support a system of un-tortured, even happy
cows that spent a large chunk of their lives
PHOTO BY TRASK BEDORTHA
THE MILKY WAY
outdoors. The organic standards needed
a more specifi c benchmark, but those
standards also had to take into account the
different climates where organic dairies
exist.
Ultimately, the NOP settled on these
requirements: Cows must graze in pasture
for the entirety of the local growing season,
which must not be fewer than 120 days.
That time doesn’t need to be consecutive;
it can be broken up to deal with unforeseen
weather events or other issues. During this
time, the animals must obtain 30 percent of
the dry matter in their food from pasture.
“It doesn’t sound like a lot, but you
have to keep in mind that they have to eat
more pounds in pasture than they would
in hay,” says Callyn Kircher of Oregon
Tilth, an organic advocacy and certifi cation
organization. That’s because the water
content in pasture is higher than the feed
the cows receive in the barn — it takes
more eating to process the high-quality
pasture diet.
So the access to pasture rule was
updated in 2010 and, as of June 2011,
all new and existing organic dairies are
required to be in compliance. Smaller
dairy farms that already kept their cows
mostly outside didn’t have to change much
about their grazing practices. The law
necessitated change mostly at farms with
herds too large to forage on inadequately
small or unmanaged pastures.
“I would say that the vast majority
were already in compliance,” Kircher
says. “What’s really changed is the record
keeping.”
To show that their cows meet the
requirement of receiving 30 percent of their
dry food from pasture, farmers must keep
meticulous notes for annual inspection.
A heck of a good cow
It’s clear that the precision and attention
to detail of the record keeping required for
organic certifi cation is right up the Bansens’
alley. The herd grazes in a roped-off sector
of the fi elds for 12 hours before the cows
are moved to a new area, after which the
grazed fi eld has 30 days until the cows
return. The herd is managed specifi cally,
Bansen says, to maximize the amount of
WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM • BLOGS.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM