Page 4 • Dairy Star • Second Section • Saturday, May 28, 2016
ConƟnued from WCROC | Page 3 The two herds also have different housing conditions. During the summer, the 140-cow conventional herd is housed on dry lots, and in the winter, they are kept in a bedded pack barn. With 300 acres of land to grow conventional crops, the cows are fed corn silage, haylage, soybean meal, distillers grain, corn, and minerals yearround with wet sugar beet pulp added to the ration during the
winter months. “They have higher inputs than the organic herd,” Heins said. Unlike the conventional herd, the 130-cow organic dairy herd, which has been around since 2010, is housed outdoors year-round. During the grazing season, which usually is from May to late October, the organic cows are kept and rotationally grazed on a one-quarter to one-half
acre-sized paddock 24 hours each day on the 400 acres of pasture the campus has. “The group sizes on those paddocks depends if there are heifers or milking cows on the paddocks,” Heins said. “For the milking cows, we keep them to 20 cows per group and we have six groups.” The groups will stay on their paddock between 12 hours to two days. “The research project we’re Turn to WCROC | Page 5
MISSY MUSSMAN/DAIRY STAR
A group of 20 cows in the organic herd graze on a cool season forage paddock on May 13. The WCROC rotaƟonally grazes the organic herd on one-quarter to one-half acre-sized paddocks on the 400 acres of pasture the research facility has near Morris, Minn.
MISSY MUSSMAN/DAIRY STAR
The 140-cow convenƟonal herd rests on a bedded pack outside at the WCROC dairy near Morris, Minn. The convenƟonal herd is housed on dry lots during the summer and in a bedded pack barn during the winter.
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