By Scott Wallin

TRENTON, FL — Ron St. John looks down at the ankle-high rye grass as he strolls toward a herd of cows lounging in a pasture.

“This is like ice cream right here,” he says of the grass. “This is as good as it gets for the cows. It is the best grass they can graze. This makes milk.”

While making milk is St. John’s chosen profession as one of Florida’s 140 dairy farmers, it clearly is more about passion. This particular farm — Southpoint Dairy — is one of four Florida operations he has an ownership interest in. Two more of his dairies — Highbrighton and Barrington — are located in Montezuma, Ga., two hours south of Atlanta.
St. John says it’s realistic to think he soon may open another dairy in Gilchrist County.

It’s operations such as Southpoint in Levy County that have St. John, 63, especially motivated and eager to expand. Southpoint is a 700-acre grazing dairy where 800 cows have access to all of the “ice cream” they want. This method is not as common among St. John’s Florida peers, many of whom keep their cows housed in freestall barns.
The idea of turning to grazing actually was inspired by Florida’s cattlemen, St. John says.

“It dawned on me about six months ago that the beef industry in Florida is No. 2 in the nation,” St. John said. “Why is that? Because they can graze 12 months of the year – it’s cheap production. And the dairy industry insists on gathering the crop, so why don’t we just take a lesson from the beef industry? I think that’s what I am doing. That’s really the only competitive advantage the Southeast has – our climate and our grass. Otherwise, you might as well be dairying someplace else.”

Southpoint is in direct contrast to St. John’s Alliance Dairies operation in Trenton. There the herd rests on clean sand bedding under large barn roofs. Their feed and water are brought to them.

“They are polarized 180 degrees,” he said of the two farming methods. “There is no middle of the road.”

But don’t think he is promoting one method over another, though he makes no secret of his preference toward grazing. He says grazing dairies are more “art” while confinement operations are more “science.” Both have their places in Florida, he said, and he is very proud of the environmental achievements that he’s made at Alliance.

It’s just that when he steps away from the hectic pace of Alliance and heads to Southpoint — about a 25-minute ride away — things are very peaceful. And he says it’s pretty clear that he can get a better return on his assets via a grazing facility.

A staff of 80-plus tends to his 4,000 cows at Alliance. At Southpoint, a crew of four handles everything without the need for much machinery, hence the reason for such peacefulness.

“It’s low input and relatively low output but the returns are excellent,” St. John says of Southpoint, which began milking cows on Dec. 23. “Our return on our assets is better. You just don’t have any of the other expenses that go along with it. At Alliance, you have feed wagons, tractors and loaders and people. We carry about 56 to 60 cows per man at Alliance. These grazing dairies carry about 200 cows (per worker). The (milk) production is about 60 percent of Alliance’s but once you pay that (supplemental) feed, everything else is pretty small.

“Grazing is a trend for me. I can’t say it is for the industry.”

Meanwhile, Alliance continues to set a standard of environmental excellence and stewardship. The management of cow manure is a top priority for all dairy farmers but St. John is among a handful of Florida producers with an on-farm composting program.
Alliance has partnered with Old Castle Lawn and Garden South of Cross City, which each week delivers to the dairy carbon-based byproducts such as sawdust and wood shavings. These elements are combined with cow manure and then composted to form a reusable product by the landscape and garden industries.

Compared with most Florida dairies, Alliance grows a higher percentage of its cow feed on site. Ron said he is able to produce about 70 percent of his feed at Alliance and has a goal of reaching 80 percent. By growing this much feed in Gilchrist County, St. John has reduced his need to have products shipped in from Midwestern states, further lessening his environmental impact of producing milk.

His efforts have received high praise from Florida Farm Bureau, which bestowed its “CARES” (County Alliance for Responsible Environmental Stewardship) designation on Alliance.

Ron St. John poses by his sign indicating he qualifies for the distinction as a CARES facility.