Dairy Cow Forage

Dairy cows require the highest quality forage possible to meet their nutritional needs. Milk production takes an enormous amount of energy. To meet these demands a dairy cow must consume 3 to 4% of her body weight in dry matter each day. This means a large lactating dairy cow can eat up to 160 lbs. of fresh pasture grass in one day. Pastures must be able to keep up with such heavy grazing in order to maintain milk production.

Our team of rangeland experts have designed a dairy cow pasture seed mix for every region of the United States. The following considerations were made during the design process for each regional blend:

• Environmental elements such as soil conditions, sun/shade preferences and heat tolerances
• Genetic attributes such as nutrient content, grazing tolerance and disease resistance
• Water requirements

Palatability is key to these blends, as dairy cows will graze the tastiest species first. Including only the most palatable grass species helps prevent the cow from wandering around while looking for more palatable forage, maximizing the time spent grazing. We’ve also selected grasses that create thick, dense stands that can tolerant heavy grazing.

All of our dairy cow blends contain a percentage of legumes designed to provide protein for the cow and nitrogen for the soil. Achieve the highest milk production rates possible with our dairy cow pasture grass blends.