Setting up for growth in grassfed

Changes to management and infrastructure are key for the Hershbergers

By Martha Hoffman Kerestes

Editor’s note: Graze likes to check in with previously featured farmers. Here’s an update from a northeastern Ohio grassfed dairy producer (Graze March 2020).

Fredericksburg, Ohio — Infrastructure and management changes have set the stage for David and Emily Hershberger’s dairy to grow.

The main goal is to open the door for the next generation.

“Our son got married, and he’d like to come home and farm,” David explains.

A new parlor, groundwork for freestall expansion, and management changes like fall-seasonal calving and nurse cows are part of pursuing that goal.

And since the couple and their 12-year-old daughter Eve are the only labor right now, those changes also make things more manageable from a labor standpoint.

February 7, 2025February 7, 2025

From once- to twice-daily milking

The Murrays spent their time on OAD on projects to make life easier

By Martha Hoffman Kerestes

Truxton, New York — Time is a limited commodity, and that’s one of the reasons some dairy farmers, including Ryan and Annie Murray (Graze January 2021), choose to milk once a day (OAD). With more cows than their 80-cow tie stall milking setup could hold in one batch, it was the most workable choice given their labor constraints back in 2020.

But instead of being a long-term fit, OAD milking ended up being a stepping stone back to more efficient twice-daily (TAD) milking with their expanding herd.

The Murrays had talked with a number of OAD graziers who told them that the key to success is good management of the additional time from milking less.

“It’s all about what you do with your time,” Annie says. “Lots of people use that time to make money. We didn’t earn money, but we spent time on projects that made twice-a-day milking easier.”

January 6, 2025February 7, 2025

Grazing success on a large scale

Jordan Settlage has found creative ways to make it work

By Martha Hoffman Kerestes

St. Mary’s, Ohio — A decade ago Jordan Settlage started a dairy with seven cows. Today he’s milking 350 head on 400 acres with 270-300 days on pasture each year. Grazing has been key to profitability every step of the way.

Even back in elementary school, Jordan was sure that he wanted to be a dairy farmer. His father, John, grew up milking cows and wanted to make sure his son knew what he was getting into, so Jordan started helping out on a neighbor’s conventional dairy when he was 14.

He worked off and on at the dairy for a dozen years with a few years away for an Army tour of Iraq and college, and it confirmed for him that he wanted to milk cows and that he didn’t want to do it in confinement.

So Jordan dove into creating a grass dairy. He had a leg up, since there was a family farm to come home to and some existing infrastructure — his grandpa and uncle had milked until the late 80s on this farm before John took over the farm and did crops and pastured livestock.

The 1986-built milking parlor was still there, although the equipment had been gutted and sold. For just under $50,000, Jordan, with help from John, made the parlor usable again, including pouring the deck higher since the pit was too shallow.

December 6, 2024

Surprising growth with herdshares

Creambrook Farm has navigated growing pains and successes

By Martha Hoffman Kerestes

Middlebrook, Virginia — Five years ago, Ben and Kristen Beichler (Graze February 2020) were milking 32 cows once a day for a slowly growing raw milk herdshare called Creambrook farm, serving 470 families weekly about three years into their business venture. Today there are 3,400 families a week getting milk from 120 cows milked twice daily.

They’d just hired their first part-time employee back then, and today there are 14 on payroll, mostly full time, including Ben and Kristen.

“Kristen and I were laughing thinking over what’s changed,” Ben says. “In the last five years we’ve probably lived more life than any other five-year span.”

The Covid-19 pandemic produced the first big bump in sales.

“Demand absolutely exploded overnight,” Ben says. “We had already planned 2020 to be a growth year with new cows and equipment investments, so we were in a position to take advantage when the first waves came in, but interest was so strong it quickly overran us in terms of production and capabilities.”

September 30, 2024

Bringing a new generation into dairy

MacKenzie Wallace finds a place on 156-year-old grazing farm

By Martha Hoffman Kerestes

Whitingham, Vermont — MacKenzie Wallace knew he wanted to make a career in the grazing dairy world. He also knew it would be a challenge since there was no family farm to work into.

A few turns in the road later, this young Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) graduate is working with seasoned dairy grazier Leon Corse in south-central Vermont (Graze April 2020) where he completed his apprenticeship in 2021.

When MacKenzie first came back as hired labor earlier this year, he started taking on more management decisions. He is now being transitioned into the operation more fully.

They’re both optimistic about the future.

Getting into dairy

MacKenzie didn’t grow up on a farm, but he gravitated toward agriculture nonetheless.

August 6, 2024August 6, 2024

Finding opportunities in obstacles

From low milk prices to 100% raw sales with the CSA model

By Martha Hoffman Kerestes

Alfred Station, New York — After four decades of dairying, hauling costs and low milk prices made shipping grassfed organic milk unsustainable for the Snyders. Sometimes the milk check hardly covered the electric bill.

For Kelby and Kristina and Kelby’s father Jerry, there were two choices: stop dairying or massively scale raw milk sales.

The odds looked stacked against the raw milk option. The farm isn’t in a densely populated or wealthy area, New York regulations only permit on-farm sales, and current raw milk customers were relatively few. It was going to take some serious creativity to make a go of it.

In the face of the unknowns, the family took a leap of faith and gave notice to their milk buyer in November 2022. The milk truck came for the last time on April 29, 2023.

CSAs were the ticket

Existing raw milk sales were consistently 30-50 gallons a week. The 45-cow herd milked once a day was producing about 500 gallons weekly, so the Snyders needed to make ten times the current sales. A tall order, but they believed the demand would be there and therefore didn’t scale down the cow herd.