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KBC Farms of Purdy, Missouri (La Quinta, Calif. — January 22, 2008) KBC Farms of Purdy Missouri was named the 2008 Innovative Dairy Farmer of the Year during a ceremony yesterday at the 2008 Dairy Forum. Charles Fletcher, operations manager of KBC Farms, received the award from International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) Secretary Mike Reidy, who is senior vice president of procurement, logistics and business development at Leprino Foods. Now in its 10th year, this award recognizes U.S. dairy producers that apply creativity, excellence and forward thinking to achieve greater on-farm productivity and improved milk marketing. The award is co-sponsored by IDFA and Dairy Today magazine. According to the judges, KBC Farms' intensive management system and meticulous record keeping allowed the farm to become a model of efficiency and profitability. Its systematic approach to managing and measuring each area of the farm helped the company to garner the award this year. KBC Farms is a large-scale, pasture-based dairy operation that has earned a reputation for being one of the most progressive agricultural businesses in the state of Missouri. But it didn't start out that way. In the mid-1990's, Fletcher and his three partners — his dad, brother and brother-in-law — were milking 60 cows and managing eight poultry houses. Times were tough for traditional dairies in southern Missouri, and the partners were discussing a variety of options, including the possibility of liquidating the dairy. "That's when Charles decided to go to grazing school," said Reidy. "He came home with a roll of wire and renewed enthusiasm to keep the family dairy farm alive and prosperous." The partners began by dividing pastures into grazing paddocks and adding 15 cows. Soon they developed a grazing plan with a two-year timeline that would allow them to determine if a pasture-based system was right for them. Within 14 months, the farm's entire feed bill had been eliminated, so the partners decided to keep the plan going, expanding to more than 100 cows. Today, the Fletchers manage two dairies as part of KBC Farms. In 2001, they decided to divest the poultry farms and launched a new 240-acre operation in Purdy, with 185 cows. Three years later, they bought a 600-acre farm in Lockwood, Missouri. Between the two farms, they now milk close to 600 cows and raise more than 400 heifers. The move to a pasture-based system required an entirely new approach to dairy management for the Fletchers. Learning to manage forage growth, for example, was a major challenge. To gain a better understanding, Charles traveled to New Zealand where he discovered how to use electronic rising plate meters to measure forage. He now checks the meters once a week and plots growing conditions for each pasture on a spreadsheet developed by the University of Missouri. The system is called a "feed wedge." The wedge system allows Fletcher to change his feeding strategy based on what's going on in the pasture. He estimates that KBC Farms has saved nearly 30% in purchased feed costs by knowing the amount of forage available. Using the wedge system also allowed KBC Farms to reduce its fertilizer costs by nearly 40%. Fletcher also realized that the farm's large-framed Holstein cows would not work as well as smaller-sized animals. That led Fletcher to launch a three-way cross-breeding program with Swedish Red, Jersey and Holstein cattle. Pleased with the results to date, the Fletchers are on track with their goal of reaching 20,000 pounds of milk per acre. "Perhaps most importantly, KBC Farms has shown that a small family dairy can still survive and thrive, even in today's changing environment," said Reidy. KBC Farms was nominated by Katie Smith, Missouri's director of agriculture. The judges for this year's award were Ken Bailey of Penn State University, Mark Stephenson of Cornell University, Jim Dickrell of Dairy Today magazine, Bob Yonkers, vice president and chief economist on the IDFA staff and Don Bennink from North Florida Holsteins, the 2005 winner of this award. Other winners of the Innovative Dairy Farmer title include Mason Dixon Farms, Gettysburg, Pa. (1999); Clauss Dairy Farms, Hilmar, Calif. (2000); Baldwin Dairy/Emerald Dairy, in Emerald, Wis. (2001); Si-Ellen Farms in Jerome, Idaho (2002); Pagel's Ponderosa Dairy of Kewaunee, Wis. (2003); C Bar M Dairy, Jerome, Idaho (2004); KF Dairy, El Centro, Calif. (2006) and Joseph Gallo Farms (2007). A call for nominations for the 2009 Innovative Dairy Farmer award will be released this summer.
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The International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA), Washington, DC, represents the nation's dairy manufacturing and marketing industries and their suppliers, with a membership of 530 companies representing a $90-billion a year industry. IDFA is composed of three constituent organizations: the Milk Industry Foundation (MIF), the National Cheese Institute (NCI) and the International Ice Cream Association (IICA). IDFA's 220 dairy processing members run more than 600 plant operations, and range from large multi-national organizations to single-plant companies. Together they represent more than 85% of the milk, cultured products, cheese and frozen desserts produced and marketed in the United States. IDFA can be found online at www.idfa.org
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