Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Putting cows out to pasture is the topic of a three-day University of Missouri Extension workshop that begins Wednesday.

The university's Southwest Research Center says that more farmers are letting dairy cows graze in fields, as a cheaper alternative to feeding them in centralized facilities.

The number of cows on Missouri-based pasture dairies has grown from 5,000 to almost 20,000 since 2004.

More than 200 farmers from 21 states attended the Mount Vernon research center's first dairy grazing conference last year. This year's conference is being held in Joplin. It runs through Friday.