Moo U: Chico State Dairy Goes Organic

US - A bold new day has dawned at the California State University, Chico dairy, ushering in an approach that educators and students hope will bring consistently higher prices for their milk and a prosperous future for students.
calendar icon 31 October 2007
clock icon 5 minute read

After 40 years of following the mainstream, the university's dairy in the spring completed a shift from conventional milk production to organic, making it the first educational facility in the West with that distinction.

Animal science professor Cindy Daley is in charge of the university dairy. She cited two major reasons for the change: first, to meet the growing demand for organic food and, second, to bring new and exciting work opportunities to Chico State students.

She said prices for organic milk are steadier and have typically been higher than the conventional market. In fact, for much of the summer, Chico State's organic milk returned more than double the price it would have received for conventional product.

"It was a perfect fit as organics is really booming these days," Daley said. "I think it's also a way of thinking--a mind adjustment where we help the students start thinking out of the box and look at agriculture in a different way."

Organic dairy farming began about 30 years ago, though it has only been in recent years that substantial growth has occurred. It's a growing endeavor in California and nationally. A survey by the Organic Trade Association indicated U.S. retail sales of organic dairy products totaled more than $2.1 billion last year, a 24-percent increase from 2005 figures.

"Organic dairying in California has certainly expanded in the last five years, especially in Marin/Sonoma and on the North Coast areas of Humboldt and Del Norte," said Leslie J. "Bees" Butler, University of California dairy economist. "Organic does provide an opportunity to small dairy producers to improve their profitability, but it is not a panacea for saving small dairy farms."

Those at the Chico State dairy will tell you that, in their case, it's a niche worth pursuing.

Transitioning to organic on the campus farm proved long and arduous. It started with the three-year process of getting their pastures certified organic. Next, conventionally raised heifers were purchased, then transitioned into organic by having them eat from the newly designated pasture. That step took an additional year.

"It's the kind of thing where you have to work with the ecosystem," Daley said. "It's not easy. A lot of technology is designed to make food production easy. Organically managed dairy production is a lot more difficult--you don't have those easy answers. It's not the kind of thing we were trained for in our respective degree programs, so this is a new approach to making milk."

At the center of organic dairy farming is a holistic approach, encompassing much more than meets the eye.

"You have to start at the rock bottom, making sure your soil fertility is correct so that the plants are nutritious," Daley said. "If the pasture plants are nutritious, then our cows will be healthy and produce nutritious milk."

Cows dine on lush green grass a short stroll from the dairy and are rotated to a different field every 12 hours. This ensures that the pastures are grazed evenly and gives the cows fresh grass twice a day. They have nine, 5-acre paddocks that they rotate the herd through.

This new approach is a winner with students, who say they are gaining volumes of knowledge from the hands-on instruction.

Instead of pouring over textbooks, students learn from living resources--thousand-pound animals. There are 60-plus cows at the dairy, with names including Franklyn and Tank, each with a distinct personality, from friendly to cantankerous.

Despite the different dispositions from bovine to bovine, those working with the herd are focused and committed to one thing above all else--ensuring they have truly happy cows. They achieve this by keeping animal stress low and providing good housing, a clean environment, good sanitation and optimal nutrition, including the proper regimen of vitamins and minerals. Following these steps leads to more and better milk.

And, if a cow gets sick, treatment methods differ greatly from conventional dairies.

"You can't just give them a shot or a vaccine and heal them right away. Basically you have to do trial and error to keep them in good health," said Josh Cook, a student majoring in agricultural business and animal science.

The holistic approach bears a similarity to how some people nurse themselves back to health. Extra vitamin C is an answer to some ailments, while garlic tincture taken orally or topically also can provide relief.

This management style has provided tremendous learning for Michelle James, who came to Chico State from Huntington Beach with ambitions of becoming a holistic livestock veterinarian.

"This is my first taste of a farm, my first experience with cows," James said. "I've learned a lot just by being able to treat them with all of the different methods. It involves trial and error and all of the different research. I'm learning so much. I've learned a lot and I want to continue."

At this farm, cows are milked twice a day, seven days a week, at 5:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m., between February and December. Each animal produces about 4.5 gallons of milk per day. The milk is shipped to Crystal Creamery, where it's processed and sold throughout California under the Organic Valley brand.

A second phase that may be achieved within five years at the campus dairy involves adding on-site milk, cheese and ice cream production, then marketing it on campus and throughout the local area.

"It's absolutely great that we are able to teach the students something that's new to the university system," said research associate Darby Holmes, who's providing assistance to Daley and the students at the dairy. "Organic dairy farming has tons of growth left and, hopefully, from the students learning about it, they'll be able to go out and capitalize on it."

The shift from conventional to organic at the farm was a perfect fit for student Tim Kehoe, who came to Chico State with the goal of a future in construction management, but now strives to eventually take over for his father and run the family dairy farm near the Point Reyes National Seashore.

"This is a wise thing for me to do," Kehoe said. "It will help me better understand everything that's going on with organic and how organic can better help people. I don't think organics are going to go away at all. It's just going to keep building and building."

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