Who is F. W. Owen?
- Full name: Frederick Walter Owen
- Born: 10/17/47
- Born within 1/4 mile of where I live now.
- At least a fifth generation dairy farmer.
- 3rd generation Registered Holstein Breeder.
- Graduated from Ohio State University with a degree in Dairy Science.
- But always skipped Mondays and Fridays so I could milk at home.
- Hardly ever missed a milking from 1951-1997.
- Member of the OSU dairy judging team.
- Showed winners at World Dairy Expo.
- Multiple winner of the Premier Breeder Banner at the Ohio State Fair
- Never had a job in my entire life. Always self employed.
- Milked up to 300 cows, farmed up to 2000 acres.
- Now milk 30 cows and graze on 62 acres.
- Manager of Elite Registered Holstein Sales.
- Enrolled Agent licensed by the US Treasury Dept.
- Apprentice Auctioneer under the supervision of my 19 yr old daughter.
- Married to Jackie who is an attorney and magistrate.
This was my introduction when I first joined Graze-L. I assumed the readers would be farmers involved with seasonal calving and intensive grazing:
Date: Sun, 15 Jan 1995
Folks,
I see myself as a typical, USA, lake states, dairy farmer. My background, education, motivation, farm history and etc. is just about right on average. Except for grazing, you could probably delete my name and substitute any one of a 1000 other dairy farmers and the story would still fit. I want the people of GRAZE-L to have a little insight into the mindset of an average midwestern dairy farmer.
-------------------------
My name is F. W. Owen from the state of Ohio in the USA. We are located 40 miles south of Lake Erie in the north east quadrant of the state. The weather here is cold.
My grazing season for milking cows was April 10 through Nov 25. The heifers and dry cows grazed from Mar 28 to 4 days ago. I have grass but it is frozen in solid ice from a freezing rain that came on top of snow.
The pastures are bluegrass/white clover. This is the natural vegetation of the area. It is not necessary to plant anything here to get outstanding pasture. There is enough blue grass/white clover seed in the soil here to last until the next ice age.
12 to 14 years ago a New Zealander wandered through this area talking about grass. At that point in my life, I wasn't aware that cows could eat grass. I naturally assumed that Total Mixed Rations were the only proper way to feed cows.
However, the New Zealander said enough that I realized grazing would work. I might add that, out of approximately 50 farmers that attended the meeting, I was the only farmer who thought it would work in Ohio. The other farmers thought that the New Zealander was there as entertainment.
That spring we grazed 180 dry cows and bred heifers in one big group and made complete fools of ourselves.
Since then we improved slightly every year. Everything we have learned has come the hard way. Other farmers in the area thought that I was absolutely crazy. There hasn't been anyone to talk to about grazing until the last two years.
I fear that I have convinced, by example, a fairly large group of farmers near me to switch to grazing in the last two years. I am feeling a sense of responsibility toward these farmers. I must be certain they have the information they need to make grazing work.
There is a popular magazine available here about grassfarming. I just recently subscribed. After three issues, I feel that they are a little casual about their facts.
Our university and extension people are generally grazing phobes with a few outstanding exceptions. One of the exceptions being David Zartman, who I believe has spent considerable time in New Zealand.
I started milking when I was seven in 1954 and have missed very few milkings since. I did manage to graduate from Ohio State University with a Dairy Science degree in 1969. I mostly skipped Mondays and Fridays so I could be home to milk. This was a fairly common practice for farm boys at that time.
Before switching to grazing completely four years ago, we milked 300 cows 3x. The cows never saw grass. They were almost never off the concrete. We fed a TMR year around and milked in a double ten. We also plowed and planted corn and soybeans on every acre we could buy or rent scattered all over 3 townships.
Our cows were not off concrete, except for a small earth exercise lot, for 40 years, at least.
My main interest is the Registered Holstein business. I love to show cows. The best cow that we ever owned was: Owen Marquis Wanda EX-96, records to 32,000 milk and a first place winner at the World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wisconsin.
I have many questions and comments of my own. I am also in constant communication with a large group of dairy graziers suffering from the misconception that I know something. They are supplying me with plenty of questions. They also have some ideas and practices that GRAZE-L should hear about.
[Table of Contents] [Top] [fwo@ bright.net]