Spring Pasture Walk

Dairy and Livestock Producers To Learn About Rotational Grazing

-By Lisa Kempisty, Dairy Educator, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Chautauqua County

JAMESTOWN, NEW YORK (May 4, 2015) - With spring upon us, both sunshine and rain showers are welcome to help the grasses grow in pastures for our livestock to graze. Cornell Cooperative Extension of Chautauqua County is organizing a Spring Pasture Walk to be held on May 12, 2015, at a dairy farm in Sherman, NY.

With many of our 200+ dairy farms throughout Chautauqua County using pasture to feed and exercise their milking cows and dairy replacements, this educational on-farm pasture walk is being held to share both practical and research-based grazing information. Beef producers and other livestock producers interested in rotational grazing are also encouraged to attend.

Our dairy farm host, Murphy’s Grass Farm in Sherman, is a local certified organic family dairy farm with great interest and success in producing high quality, nutritious milk using sustainable grass based practices.

Cornell Cooperative Extension of Chautauqua County Dairy Educator, Lisa Kempisty, states “Pasture walks are held to encourage agricultural producers to visit other farms, share ideas and learn practices they may use to profitably manage their own farm businesses. Our guest discussion leader for our spring pasture walk at Murphy’s Grass Farm will be Karen Hoffman, an Animal Science Specialist, with Natural Resources Conservation Service.”

Farm owners and their employees will learn new ideas on feeding and managing their livestock using intensive rotational grazing. At Murphy’s Grass Farm, paddocks are surrounded by high tensile fence to keep the dairy cattle inside a five acre area, with temporary fence used to divide the area into smaller pastures to offer the cattle fresh, nutritious grass. The milking cows then efficiently convert this grass to high quality milk that is marketed locally through Upstate Niagara Cooperative, Inc. Cows are moved to new pastures every day. The farm uses over 100 acres throughout the spring, summer and fall to “rotationally graze” their milking cows.

Rotational grazing allows producers to feed high quality forage and lower their purchased feed costs, while using the farm’s land resources to efficiently feed and manage their livestock.

Agricultural producers interested in attending this spring pasture walk are asked to contact Lisa Kempisty, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Chautauqua County at 664-9502 Ext 203 or ljk4@cornell.edu for more details.

Photo Caption: Dairy cows graze at Murphy’s Grass Farm, our host for agricultural producers attending the upcoming Spring Pasture Walk.

A Farm Pasture Walk is one of many programs offered by Cornell Cooperative Extension of Chautauqua County (CCE-Chautauqua). CCE-Chautauqua is a community based educational organization, affiliated with Cornell University, Chautauqua County Government, the NYS SUNY system, and the federal government through the United States Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture. For more information, call 716-664-9502 or visit our website at www.cce.cornell.edu/chautauqua. Cornell University Cooperative Extension provides equal program and employment opportunities.

Last updated July 26, 2019