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Grass-Fed Dairy: Opportunities and Challenges in this Rapidly Growing Market

Join eOrganic for a webinar on Grass-Fed Dairy: Opportunities and Challenges in this Rapidly Growing Market, by Heather Darby and Sarah Flack. The webinar takes place on December 12, 2018 at 11AM Pacific, 12PM Mountain, 1PM Central, 2PM Eastern Time. It's free and open to the public, and advance registration is required.

Register now at: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_-DAEfW4FSj2FPQe4IqqQFQ

About the webinar

Heather Darby (University of Vermont) and Sarah Flack (Flack Consulting) have been working with local cooperatives and dairy farmers to identify both the opportunities and challenges found with grass only milk production. Through funding provided by USDA Northeast SARE and USDA NERME grants they have been able to develop baseline production data from grass-only farms in the Northeast. This presentation will cover the recent history and rapid growth in grass-only milk markets in the U.S. In addition, preliminary data that highlights the range of production/management systems on these dairy farms will be presented. Finally the webinar will share goals and objectives of the newly funded USDA OREI grant led by UVM, UNH, USDA ARS, and Tufts University to further explore grass only dairy in the U.S.

About the presenters

Heather Darby is an agronomist at the University of Vermont Extension where she conducts applied research and outreach on farm-based fuel, forage, and grain production systems in New England. Heather's research has focused on traditional and niche crop variety trials, weed management strategies, and cropping systems development. Her farmer outreach programs have focused on soil health, nutrient management, organic grain and forage production, and oilseed production. In addition, Heather leads the eOrganic dairy team and also operates a certified organic farm with her husband in northern Vermont.

Sarah Flack is a national consultant on grass-based livestock farming and lives in Fairfield, Vermont. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Agriculture and Biology and her Masters of Science degree in Plant and Soil Science from the University of Vermont (UVM). She also has post graduate training in organic certification, business management, Holistic Management, animal welfare, organic production practices and much β€œon-the-job” farm experience. For the past 14 years, she has worked as an independent organic certification inspector, and has also served on OMRI's Livestock Review Panel for the past 2 years. For 8 years, she worked as an organic livestock technical assistance provider for the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont (NOFA-VT) and for 5 years she was the Vermont Pasture Network Facilitator at the UVM Center for Sustainable Agriculture. Sarah grew up on a grass-based livestock farm in northern Vermont and farmed with her family for many years where she gained hands-on experience with sheep, dairy cows, beef cattle, pigs, poultry, and goats as well as with vegetables, medicinal herbs, pasture management and forest management.

About eOrganic

The eOrganic eXtension website at http:www.extension.org/organic_production is for farmers, ranchers, agricultural professionals, certifiers, researchers and educators seeking reliable information on organic agriculture, published research results, farmer experiences, and certification. Our current content is focused on general organic agriculture, dairy production, and vegetable production. The content is collaboratively authored and reviewed by our community of University researchers and Extension personnel, agricultural professionals, farmers, and certifiers with experience and expertise in organic agriculture.

https://youtu.be/wfFQk2ulNQg

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About the Extension Foundation

The Extension Foundation was formed in 2006 by Extension Directors and Administrators. Today, the Foundation partners with Cooperative Extension through liaison roles and a formal plan of work with the Extension Committee on Organization and Policy (ECOP) to increase system capacity while providing programmatic services, and helping Extension programs scale and investigate new methods and models for implementing programs. The Foundation provides professional development to Cooperative Extension professionals and offers exclusive services to its members. In 2020 and 2021, the Extension Foundation has awarded 85% of its direct funding back to the Cooperative Extension System, 100% of funds are used to support Cooperative Extension initiatives. 

This technology is supported in part by New Technologies for Ag Extension (funding opportunity no. USDA-NIFA-OP-010186), grant no. 2023-41595-41325 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture or the Extension Foundation. For more information, please visit extension.org. You can view the terms of useat extension.org/terms.

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