days away from a drought,” chuckled Wehner. The coarse-textured soils and lack of uniform rainfall throughout the year make irrigation an integral grazing system component. The center pivots at Jumping Gully serve four purposes. They provide water from a large aquifer to the vast amounts of forage being grown. In summer, at least 1 inch of rain or irrigation water is needed to maintain pasture and corn growth. The pivots are also used to fertilize pastures. Liquid fertilizer is injected with a pump to provide about 1 pound of nitrogen per acre per day to the growing forage. Through a separate piping system, manure wastewater from the dairy unit is also applied to pastures using the center pivots. Finally, the pivots are equipped with sprinklers to keep cows and heifers cool during the hot, dry Georgia summers.
Right: Pastures stay productive with frequent irrigations.
Young stock graze, too
A family affair
“I love to see calves on pasture,” said Wehner, as he walked through the carpet of annual ryegrass and oats at the heifer farm platform near Pavo. Calves are weaned in 50 to 60 days and supplemented with a free-choice grain mix until May. During the winter months, heifer calves graze the oats and ryegrass pasture base, though some fields also include a mixture of seeded clover species. In summer, the calves graze Alicia bermudagrass, crabgrass (which Wehner really likes), and pearl millet. From May through September, they are supplemented with corn silage and gluten feed. Bred heifers are put into a leader-follower system with the milking herd during the early spring flush of grass growth. In summer, heifers are
Beyond the success of that initial dairy established in Quitman over 20 years ago, Al and Desiree have had even greater success incorporating their children into ownership and management positions. Their son Clay and his wife, Amanda, own the cattle on Green Hill Dairy in Quitman. Clay also acts as general manager for the other grazing-based dairies, both Jumping Gully and Grassy Flats dairies near Pavo. Amanda fills the role of business office manager for the operations. Wehner’s daughter, Jessica, and her husband, Jeremy Little, own and operate Sweet Grass Dairy in Thomasville (sweetgrassdairy.com). Originally started by Al and Desiree in
Below: Bred heifers are moved into a paddock recently occupied by the milking herd.
moved to a different farm where pearl millet and crabgrass are utilized as a forage source. Once the crabgrass goes dormant, oats and ryegrass are grazed during the winter until the animals are put back into a leader-follower system with the milking herd.
2000, Sweet Grass Dairy is a retail dairy store and award-winning artisan cheese processing facility. The business sells product throughout the United States. Milk is supplied by the Wehners’ dairy platforms. The youngest son, Kyle, and his wife, Janelle (a native New Zealander), started Dreaming Cow Creamery in 2009; it’s a yogurt processing facility in Pavo that sells product under the “Dreaming Cow” label (dreamingcow.com). The milk is supplied by Jumping Gully. “We’ve learned a lot about grassbased dairying since Desiree and I started in 1993. Back then, there weren’t a lot of models to follow for a New Zealand-style operation in southern Georgia,” said Wehner. “Like everyone else, we made mistakes and tried to learn from them. We now feel fortunate to be in a position where our children and their spouses play a significant role in the operation,” he added. That no doubt makes for more time to sit back and enjoy the spoils from the forage — Sweet Grass Dairy cheese and Dreaming Cow yogurt. •
April/May 2016 | hayandforage.com | 23