This rule, which gives farmers a year to come into compliance, should be to the advantage of small organic-dairy farms in Pennsylvania and the other big Northeastern dairy states, New York and Vermont.
"We do have some real advantages over the Wild West, not the least of which is good grass-growing weather, but also close markets and smaller family farms," said Roman Stoltzfoos, who milks 200 cows on a Lancaster County farm near Gap.
Stoltzfoos, who sells his milk to Natural By Nature in West Grove, said his cows already got 50 percent to 60 percent of their food from grass during grazing season, putting him well over the minimum of 30 percent required by the new rule. The grazing season must be at least four months long. Many cows in Pennsylvania graze for six months.
Many small farmers have taken to grazing their cows because, done right, it can be more profitable than raising crops to feed cows, or buying feed.
But not all of Lancaster County's estimated 100 organic dairies are going to have it as easy. Most farms there are small. It is not uncommon to have intensely farmed 60-acre dairies side by side with 40 cows each, said Peter Miller, eastern regional manager for milk producer Organic Valley, of LaFarge, Wis.
"They are literally fencing off cropland" to plant more pasture, Miller said. "There probably will be some casualties."
The new rule replaces a vaguely stated requirement that cows have "access to pasture." The National Organic Standards Board, which advises the Agriculture Department, has pushed for more stringent requirements ever since federal organic regulations took effect in 2000.
U.S. sales of organic dairy products exploded from $725 million in 2000 to $3.61 billion in 2008, before falling 1 percent, to $3.57 billion, last year, the Organic Trade Association reported.
