America’s Dairy Grassland – Wisconsin milk production that regenerates people and land

Abstract

ABSTRACT Transforming Wisconsin’s dairy production from annual crop-based to perennial grassland-based is critical for human health and well-being, but the ramifications for land use under this scenario have not been explored. I considered whether the amount of milk currently produced (~14.4B kg yr−1) with the confinement model (~2.57 AU ha−1) could be produced with a grassland model (~1.6 AU ha−1) without displacing production of other food and feed crops. Converting all land currently producing grains and forages for dairy (~796k ha) to grazed grassland would result in ~57% less milk production because there would be fewer cows producing less milk per animal. While the current system efficiently feeds dairy cattle when considering only milk yield per animal, it does so at the expense of environmental and social well-being, which are fundamental to the agroecological equation. To match current milk production exclusively on grassland would require ~1.04 M additional hectares, displacing other land uses in ways that would be initially very disruptive with significant transition costs, but eventually would improve ecosystem, community, and individual well-being. Planning for and realizing this vision requires major investments in markets, policies, and technical support of place-making and enterprise transitions to make Wisconsin America’s Dairy Grassland.