Grass Based Dairy Farm

David Nichols has managed the herd as a grass based Dairy Farm since 1979. He has done about everything you could do as a dairy farmer except expand. He has had a registered herd of Holsteins, been on DHIA test, planted corn for silage, bottled milk, sold an entire herd twice and moved the herd twice. Most recently he has been working on transitioning the herd to Organic certification.

He understands the milk market better than most and his mentors were the original grass based dairy farmers who never used a plow or fed corn silage. They didn't talk at conferences or write books, they just understood the value of grass as a feed and managed it well.

The farm was purchased in 2002 with Direct Marketing in mind. It was overgrazed and in need of a major cleaning. Infrastructure developments have been done every year. More will need to be done to make this the farm we want.

One of the treasures of this farm is a wetland. This encompases some 24 acres and has been part of a project funded by NRCS to "develop" the wetland. The idea is to improve biodiversity and encourage birds such as wood ducks to nest.

As part of another project to improve water and soil quality, there will also be buffers developed along two streams. Cattle will be fenced out of waterways and a manure handling structure will be developed to allow Dave to compost all of our manure.