Description
Book SynopsisThere 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.
Table of Contents1. 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
