Tom Trantham's Dairy Farm utilizes the 12 Aprils Nutritional Crop Rotation System to support sustainable dairy farming by rotating different forages in 29 paddocks, allowing cows to graze on a variety of crops year-round. This innovative approach enhances soil health, increases milk production without chemical inputs, and demonstrates a scalable model for ecological and economical farm management.
Tom Trantham describes his 12 Aprils crop rotation system that he says has significantly boosted the nutritional value and milk production levels on his 82 herd dairy farm.
Watch the full length version: Trantham’s Sustainable 12 Aprils Dairy Grazing Program — [ Ссылка ]
Transcript:
The 12 APRIL’s system is a system different than conventional and different than grazing. It is a totally different system that you can develop. And you can't do it overnight, but you can develop it a piece at a time. We have a hundred acres here on the farm. And we have 70 acres in pasture. 20 acres in woods. We have 83 cows right now. We want to stay under 90 cows. That's what fits the land. But what the system is, is that we have 29 paddocks here. 29 paddocks with two and a half, three and a half acres per paddock. And with that, we have something growing in every one of those paddocks that's different. And we have dividers that we can divide this into where the cows will graze one of these paddocks each day. And it'll look like it's been mowed with a lawn mower. But the thing of it is, it can be designed any way you want it. You just gotta have crops that you grow that the cows can get to. I think the variety that we have here I truly feel the cows really do appreciate, because they'll come into a field and when it's a new field, it's like they broke their neck, they start grazing. And that's what I always say those cows, you see those cows heads down, they're making money. Rotational grazing, this grass here, these cows will eat that. But the protein level is low, and the nutritional value is low. So, they will have maybe six or eight or 10,000 pound herd average but they cut their input costs. So they've done that. But I didn't cut my production. I’m 22,000 pound herd, but I plant, I'd graze a crop. Not rye. I graze a crop, I don't graze fescue, I don't graze Burmuda. I don't graze any grass, but I do plant ryegrass with my crop. But I plant a crop. I plant it four or five times in the year, a different crop. And so my cows are grazing tremendous amount of forage and the nutritional value out the roof!
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