What Makes 100% Grass-Fed Cows Unique?

mackenziehartung
Sep 4
5 min read

There are a lot of ways that dairies can feed dairy cows — each with their own impact on the final product, the health of the cows themselves, and even the farmland where they live. Maple Hill dairy cows are 100% grass-fed, which means they spend the growing season grazing freely on pastures, followed by a winter season in the barn enjoying freeze dried grass. Here, we’ll explore what makes pasture fed cows so unique.

Table of Contents:

A Day in the Life of a Pasture Fed Cow
The 100% Grass-Fed Diet Difference
Less Milk (and Better Milk)

A Day in the Life of a Pasture Fed Cow

Maple Hill dairy cows live a distinctly different life than their conventional dairy counterparts. A conventional dairy farm is built to maximize the number of cows that can be confined in a single space in order to maximize the output of dairy. Conventional cows may have little, or no, access to the outdoors or a pasture. Maple Hill cows have access to enough pasture that our farmers are able to use rotational grazing to replenish grass growth throughout the season. While the term “pasture-raised,” indicates that a cow spends time outside, they may not be fed a fully, 100% grass-fed diet. While pasture-raised dairy is certainly premium to conventional, 100% grass-fed goes a step further to produce the absolute best possible milk.

Cows that are raised on a 100% grass-fed diet have a dynamic day — they aren’t just sitting or standing in a confined stall. During the growing season, their schedule might look a little like this:

Morning: When the sun rises, the cows are released from the barn and head out to the pasture. They spend the morning grazing on natural (and nutritious) fresh grass.
Afternoon: After a morning of grazing, the cows may be brought back to the barn for a brief milking session. They'll then return to the pasture to continue grazing until the sun starts to set.
Evening: As the day winds down, the cows are herded back to the barn for the night. They'll spend the evening chewing their cud and resting in comfortable stalls.

Our Maple HIll milkshed has farms across the U.S. northeast — a region that is not known for mild winters. When pastures are dormant and the weather is cold, our cows still have outdoor access, but prefer the warmth of the barn. However, the time that they do spend on pasture continues to enhance the health of the pasture and prepare it for spring. They are never confined in winter, and are fed dried grass and baleage to maintain their nutritious diet year-round.

This schedule benefits both the health and wellbeing of our dairy cows as well as the land itself — regenerative growth through rotational grazing ensures that the soil and plants are able to thrive.

The 100% Grass-Fed Diet Difference

100% grass fed cows who get their nutrients from foraging and grasses produce a significantly different kind of dairy than conventional cows. The impact appears in their health, in the quality of dairy, and in the environment.

Conventional dairy farms were made to maximize profitability, and this is true even in the feed that conventional cows eat. With a steady diet of grains and hay, this carbohydrate-rich, nutrient deficient diet maximizes the production of milk. Conventional cows need vitamins to be supplemented to make up for their less nutritious diet, including protein supplements, in order to maintain a base level of health.

The priorities of an 100% grass-fed dairy farm are starkly different, and they produce very different results. Dairy cows aren’t optimized to produce the most milk, in fact, they produce much less milk overall (see our next section below). Instead of maximum profitability, 100% grass-fed dairy farms like Maple Hill focus on the health of our cows, the nutritional health of our dairy products, and on regenerative practices that restore our land. We get the best milk through these practices, even if it’s not the most milk.

100% grass-fed Maple Hill dairy cows roam freely to forage their food. Foraged grasses include bee-friendly clover, legumes like alfalfa and peas, bunch grasses, and wild rye — all providing protein, vitamins like A, D, and E, minerals like calcium, and antioxidants. These cows don’t need added hormones and supplements to reach optimal nutrition: nature provides what they need, just the way they were intended to eat.

Less Milk (and Better Milk)

“More” doesn’t mean “better,” especially for dairy. Conventional cows produce a greater amount of milk from their carbohydrate-rich diet, added growth hormones, and unnatural rearing practices. But this leads to a much shorter lifespan, between 2.5 and 4 years — Maple Hill dairy cows live 3x longer than this on average.

The quality of conventional dairy milk is lower than 100% grass-fed milk for a reason: the nutrient-rich pasture fed diet leads to a much more nutrient dense final product. Studies have shown that grass-fed milk is packed with heart-healthy fats through higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids and lower levels of omega-6 fatty acids. A balanced ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids is crucial for optimal health: a diet heavy in omega-6, often found in processed foods, can contribute to inflammation. Omega-3s, on the other hand, can help reduce inflammation.

When the pasture provides dairy cows with extra vitamins A, D, and E along with minerals and antioxidants, these same nutrients are passed along through the cycle and result in a more nutritious milk.

We don’t sell large gallon jugs for a simple reason: our pasture fed cows produce as much milk as they can comfortably make, the way that nature intended. There aren’t many dairies that raise 100% grass-fed dairy cows in the U.S. because it is a unique philosophy of care: less is more. The extra care requires extra effort that many conventional farmers choose to avoid because Maple Hill farmers aren’t allowed to short cut by feeding grains. Thus, the output of their farms is dependent on their diligence with the cows and the pastures.

Learn More About Maple Hill’s Pasture Fed Cows

We believe that you can taste the difference in 100% grass-fed dairy, produced by our family-owned farms. With around fifty cows at each farm, there is plenty of room to roam and graze throughout the growing season — adding years to their lives and extra nutrition directly from the pasture itself.

Read more about our unique dairy cows and 100% grass-fed farming practice in a few of our most recent blogs: