Michigan Correspondent

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Developing supply chains and markets for pasture-based dairy products is the focus of a $3.5 million grant the W.K. Kellogg Foundation has awarded Michigan State University.

With the aid of the grant, MSU researchers will spend the next three years working to determine best practices for raising animals on pasture and developing markets for these products.

The Kellogg Foundation funds, granted through its Food Systems and Rural Development programming area, will be used to establish a pasture-based dairy facility and composting program at the W.K. Kellogg Biological Station (KBS) in Hickory Corners, Mich., that will be a key component of the MSU initiative in sustainable agriculture and food systems.

The conventional dairy operation at KBS will be converted to a pasture-based program over the next two years. A 120-cow milking herd will be maintained on an intensively managed rotational grazing system and on a replicated plot-based pasture system. A portion of the milk produced at KBS will be used for production of cheese at the MSU Dairy Plant.

The program at KBS will support sustainable and productive food and farming systems by engaging diverse food system participants, from those who produce, process and market foods to those who consume them. The initiative will help determine best practices for raising animals on pasture and also work to develop an improved supply chain including processing, distribution and marketing programs for pasture-raised animals.

“To ensure the vitality of rural communities, it is important that we create better market opportunities for small and mid-sized farms,” said Mike Hamm, MSU C.S. Mott Chair for Sustainable Food Systems. “These farms are the backbone of communities – as food providers, purchasers of local goods and services, employers, taxpayers and stewards of the landscape.

“Expanding production options that improve the viability of these farms will help strengthen healthy rural economies and communities.”

KBS is administered by the MSU colleges of Agriculture and Natural Resources and Natural Science. It has a long history of integrated research in agriculture, natural resource conservation and ecology. The station began from a series of donations to the university by W.K. Kellogg in 1927-28 for use as a model farm and bird sanctuary.

Today, KBS houses 11 resident faculty members who work in modern research laboratories and conduct field research on the more than 4,000 acres of land that are used for research, teaching and outreach. The station supports both graduate and undergraduate teaching programs and extensive community outreach programming.

The grant will provide partial funding to hire two new faculty members in animal grazing ecology and human ecology in rural development. The Kellogg grant will also provide seed funding for research, outreach and education programs focused on ecological and environmental aspects of animal production, rural community development and the processing, distribution and marketing of pasture-based dairy products.

The project team hopes to strengthen distribution networks and demand for locally grown animal products raised on pasture. Developing markets based on the place and method of production will help small and medium-scale farms in Michigan to maintain a value-added advantage for which consumers are willing to pay a premium.

“This program will provide a unique opportunity to evaluate how an animal production system operates in the context of other aspects of the landscape – agricultural, managed and natural,” said Kay Gross, director of KBS.

The pasture-based dairy facility at KBS will connect Department of Animal Science and College of Veterinary Medicine faculty members with faculty and staff members with expertise and interests in agricultural and cropping system ecology, animal health and welfare, and community development.

“The development of a pasture-based dairy at KBS allows us to expand our portfolio of production alternatives for farmers and to develop new research and outreach programs that fit with interests and needs of diverse farm stakeholders,” said Karen Plaut, chair of the MSU Department of Animal Science.

In addition to the development of a pasturing program at KBS, the initiative will support connections to farm-based and high school-based satellite sites across Michigan focusing on sustainable crop and animal production. Education and outreach programs will extend to MSU undergraduate and veterinary medicine curricula, as well as to primary and secondary school programs, farmers, consumers and public officials.

This farm news was published in the Sept. 26, 2007 issue of Farm World, serving Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee.