Blending Work and Life
Rick and June Scherping are dairy farmers in Stearns County who see their way of life and business as inseparable. They have merged quality of life for their family, profitability of their farm and stewardship of the land into a complete whole. “We farm this way because of the quality of life it gives our family [and] the independence and self-reliance it gives us,” says Rick.
An Organic Approach
Rick and June perform intensive rotational grazing on their 200 acre dairy farm. In addition to being part of the “grass-based farming” trend, they are also part of the booming market for organic dairy products and their farm became certified organic in 1999.
“Our milk prices held steady during the end of 2000 and the beginning of 2001 when non-organic prices were often below the cost it took to produce the milk,” Rick says.
Now the Scherping’s have created a nicely profitable business enterprise and other like-minded farmers are scrambling to catch up. For the Sherping’s, the shift toward rotational grazing and organic farming started when they began to notice something was wrong down on the farm.
Fifteen years ago Rick and his family farmed in the conventional manner plowing the black soil on their fields each season. They purchased big bags of chemically treated seed corn from the seed companies, grew the corn and harvested it with expensive and dangerous equipment. The corn seedlings required additional chemical fertilizers and costly herbicides alarming Rick who saw more and more warning labels on agri-chemicals that he had originally been told were perfectly safe. As a result, Rick and his family began to question their traditional farming techniques.
Field of Dreams
After careful thought, Rick and June made the transition to grass and organic farming. Since their decision to become grass farmers, each year they have planted a little more acreage into permanent pasture and hay fields and a little less into cornfields. A couple years ago the farm reached a point where there is no longer an empty field on the place. During the growing season, everywhere you look there is a thick, lush mat of green and Rick can let the cows do the harvesting.
By moving the cows quickly over the grass, they only graze the most nutritious part and Rick and June can avoid overgrazing a pasture. Grass allowed to rest like this develops healthy root systems and can survive Central Minnesota’s dry summers better than continuously grazed grass.
When it does rain, farmers have discovered, soil with lush and well-managed pastures absorbs more water than cornfields or continuously grazed pastures keeping the creeks and lakes free of muddy runoff water. Rotationally grazed pastures also provide more wildlife habitat than cornfields or continuously grazed pastures.
Rotational grazing is largely a system of agriculture developed by farmers. That it works at all has surprised the experts. The financial results of the system particularly dumbfounded economists and livestock experts who had been telling farmers that the only way to make a living on a dairy farm was with an intensively capitalized operation where cows were kept inside all day. However, Rick’s numbers prove that grass farming works.
The Numbers Add Up
When the Scherping’s did the numbers in 2000, the first full year of organic production, results were impressive. Rick compared their farm’s results with 564 dairy farms in the 1999 Minnesota Farm Business Management Programs Annual Report. The Scherping’s gross income of $125,000 compared to the average farm in the Report which had $180,000 in income. But the Scherping’s had less than half the direct expenses – $54,000 compared to $107,000 – than the confinement farms. Then Rick compared his overhead costs of $8,000 to the average confinement dairy’s overhead of $19,000.
“We did these numbers in December,” Rick admits, “so we had to estimate the last month.” His last month’s estimates were pretty accurate. Even though they produced less milk, the Scherping’s expenses, which were 50 percent of their gross income, left them with $63,000. The confinement dairy’s emphasis only on high production cost them about 75 percent of their gross income and only left them with $53,000 after the direct and overhead costs.
Healthy Farm, Healthy Family
Grass-fed cows are healthier so there are fewer veterinary costs. Since large machinery is not required there are reduced fuel costs. Interest payments to bankers and machinery costs are small. Seed and herbicide costs are frequently reduced or eliminated. And, although grass-fed cows produce less milk than confined corn-fed cows, the net profits on farms like Scherping’s are as good or better than on confinement farms.
But farming is not just about being profitable. The rotational grazing system, with its absence of farm chemicals and heavy equipment, is a safe place to raise a family. The Scherping’s ought to know about raising a family. Their first four children are adults or in their late teens. In April of 2000 they adopted three children from Guatemala, ages four, six and eight. That they didn’t speak a word of English didn’t bother Rick or June.
“Children have a way of telling you things if you understand and listen to them,” they say.