Reprinted with permission from Graze magazine (October 2025 issue), a publication “by graziers, for graziers” and devoted to management-intensive rotational grazing and family-scale livestock farms. Every issue is packed with ideas from real grazing farmers and ranchers who make their livings from the land.
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Thoughts on Grassfed Dairy Qualities
By Nathan Weaver
“Is there enough strength and value in 100% grassfed dairy to support the premium pay prices being offered by the milk buyers for an extended time frame?” is a question I keep hearing a lot lately.
While I am optimistic about the future of this sector, I do know that markets are fickle and the tide of public opinion can change rapidly. To say that premiums are secure would be foolhardy: I have lived through too many market turns that make for a cautious outlook in any or all “hot” markets in agriculture.
That said, only markets that have a credible product can be sustained with strong prices for any length of time. And those can only be held in place if supply is limited and difficult to scale upward.
If we as an industry can maintain the purity of the 100% grassfed milk standards, then we have the latter part of the equation for sustaining a strong market covered. Especially so if the long double-digit growth in the sector can be maintained.
The credibility of the actual product is what the thrust of this article is about. It is why I am optimistic about 100% grassfed dairy having a realistic future.
Here is a list of credentials that can be attributed to grassfed milk.
Beyond a fad
It is beyond the “fad” stage. Fads have a short life — perhaps less than five years — unless there is real value behind them. They rise rapidly and then crash and burn. It’s likely too early to say, but it’s very probable that “fake meat” is taking this trajectory.
Remember “olestra” anyone? 30-40 years ago it was touted to make processed food low fat while maintaining full-fat flavor. It failed colossally.
A few products survive the fad stage and move on to become a trend. Bottled water, low-calorie soft drinks, and perhaps plant-based “milks” can be identified as a trend. This stage can last another 10 years or so.
Usually products that make it into the trend stage are here to stay for awhile. Although unless it has intrinsic value most of the high-profit years are used up in this stage and it becomes a low-profit commodity in time.
After the fad and trend stage comes the third stage, which is a “movement.” Only products with very deep value make it to this plane of excellency. It likely did not make a huge profit during the fad and trend stages but succeeded in building a public consciousness that stays in place for a good long time. I’d like to think that grassfed meat is entering that stage and grassfed milk is following on its coattails.
Animal product comeback
Animal-derived meat, milk, and fiber are making a comeback. Even after all the bad press animal agriculture has been given, consumers are refusing to turn away from animal protein and fats en masse.
Environmental benefits
Grassfed is seen as more earth-friendly than its conventional grainfed counterpart. A point that conventional agriculture vehemently refutes. But perennial pastures are an excellent carbon sink that places grassfed firmly on the more virtuous side.
Umami taste
Grassfed fat/tallow and butter can trigger the umami effect. Our taste buds were long thought to be restricted to identifying four sensations: sweet, sour, salty, and bitter but now humanity has been enlightened to a fifth taste: umami.
This is the sensation that makes food having it seem over the top. The eater gets this near high experience. Emotions of well-being and satisfaction are triggered in the psyche.
Relatively few foods can achieve this without enhancements with spices and additives. Infamously the processed food industry has used MSG (monosodium glutamate) to enhance the eating experience of commonplace foods, especially salty snacks.
It boosted sales gloriously but the deep value isn’t there to raise it out of the trend phase and into a movement. The dizzy headaches of Chinese Restaurant Symptom hold little appeal to consumers.
Grassfed if done right can do this naturally. No MSG needed. The key phrase here is “if done right.”
The grassfed beef industry learned the hard way that grassfed beef can be a terrible eating experience if the animal genetics and more importantly, the forages, are not of the feeding quality needed to get it right. Ditto for dairy.
But if everything is done right, this umami effect can be found in animal fats derived from a forage-only diet. I’m not saying it can’t be done in grainfed meat or milk, but it is quite rare and usually put in place by a steak sauce or marinade.
Nutritionally superior
Grassfed is nutritionally superior. Of all the other reasons I have given, I think of this one as the greatest reason our product can be one of deep value. I am going to expand more on it than I have the other reasons.
Quantifying nutrient density and scope is an emerging science.
I find the work of Dr. Allen Williams and Stephen Van Vliet fascinating and encouraging as they delve into the phytonutrient superiority of grassfed meats that are produced in well-managed regenerative practices. The same for Dan Kittredge’s research on nutrient density comparisons in meat and vegetables.
If one thing is clear about their studies it would be the fact that nutritional density in grassfed meat is best brought by a very diverse forage species intake. A minimum of 15 varieties and the more the better.
This swings the ball back into a full perennial pasture court and safeguards the soil from frequent pulverizing to accommodate low-diversity seedings. I must admit however that I lack a real understanding of how big a deal this actually will play in human health.
But the fatty acid profiles of grassfed milk and meat do make a lot of sense to me and I am of the opinion that they are poised to make a real impact on human health if more broadly consumed.
Joel McNair and Martha Hoffman Kerestes reported on a very relevant study recently published on the benefits of high omega-3 fatty acids in the human diet (see Graze August-September 2024).
I found this heartening. Dietary and medicinal discoveries and implementation mirror the same fad, trend, and movement trajectory I described for the grocery market earlier.
As Joel points out in his report, it has been more than 25 years since it was discovered that grassfed beef and dairy products have elevated omega-3s and lower omega-6 as found only in the fat. I had thought early on this would quickly cause grassfed meat and dairy to rise and become mainstream within a few short years. But alas it was not to be.
But here we are 25 years later and grassfed is still thought of as beneficial and is gaining traction. The optimist in me likes to think it is poised to enter the movement stage. The pessimist in me thinks there is not enough money to be made by the status quo with grassfed so the truth will be shouted down.
One of the major hurdles to overcome is the thought that the only way to really move the needle of getting the existing modern human diet of omega-6 to omega-3 ratio (the American diet is estimated to be at least 15:1 and up to 20:1) down to less than 3:1 is to consume more seafood.
Admittedly no ruminant will be able to match what salmon can bring to the table as far as omega-3s. But for a majority of us, salmon will be a luxury food perhaps limited to no more than a meal or two per week.
Dairy on the other hand is a staple. One that impacts most meals in one fashion or other. Let’s take a look at how dairy products high in omega-3s can impact our diets.
Beginning in September of 2014 and carrying on to September of 2015 our grassfed buyer Organic Valley analyzed six milk samples mostly during the grazing season. Our farm’s six samples averaged 137 mg (milligrams) of omega-3s per 8 oz. of 3.2% fat milk against an average of 112 mg omega-6s.
Dietitians initiated on the benefits of omega-3s advise that you should consume a minimum of 750 mg per day for it to make an impact on your health.
Out of curiosity, I did the math based on our tested average omega-3 content. There is 0.25 oz. of butterfat in one 8 oz. serving of 3.2% milk. That means there are 548 mg omega-3s per oz. of butterfat in our milk.
At our home we have a dairy-rich diet. We make our own butter, hire a cheesemaker to make cheese from our own milk, and Kristina makes the finest Greek yogurt that is consumed daily.
We do not “fat correct” our 4.75% milk to 3.2%. So here is what I consume most days.
• 12 oz. of milk 4.75% butterfat
• 10 oz. strained yogurt 7% butterfat
• 6 oz. cheese 25% fat
• 2 oz butter 80% fat
• 3 oz. cream 40% fat
It amounts to a total of 5.57 oz. of dairy fat daily at 548 mg omega 3s per oz. That’s a total of 3,052 mg every day!
But wait, there is more: we deep fry those potato strips in grassfed beef tallow. If prime ribeyes are not available, we grill a 25% fat burger. And how about whipped cream or high-fat homemade ice cream for dessert? The omega-3s keep accumulating.
Health pundits tell us omega-3s bring anti-inflammatory benefits to your personal health. Omega-6s are inflammatory.
As I’ve read in a number of health-related publications over the years, including work by Jerry Brunetti, your body needs some omega-6s to provide inflammatory protection for injuries such as an ankle sprain. Swelling is normal and necessary for the healing process to occur. But the problem is when omega-3s are lacking and omega-6s are plentiful in our diets, inflammation takes over.
My personal experience is I have had chronic skeletal pain all of my adult life — back and neck problems. When we switched to grassfed production on our farm there was a huge difference. The pain is no longer chronic. I may still throw out a vertebrae about once a year, but it is a short-lived pain and a relatively easy fix.
This past year I was diagnosed with a bicuspid aortic heart valve, a congenital condition that reduces the function of the valve to about half the lifespan of a normal tricuspid valve. The valve was replaced with a mechanical valve.
What I am getting at is in spite of my very high fat intake, the extensive testing and a heart catheterization I went through revealed exceptionally clear arteries. I contribute this to the anti-inflammatory properties in the omega-3s as doing their thing.
Yes, we can eat a meal of salmon a day and possibly match the omega-3 intake with what I just described as possible with dairy. But the benefits of omega-3s are greatly enhanced by the reduction of omega-6s.
With seafood you are not greatly replacing your diet. If you eat your fish on bread or enjoy a dinner roll, you have gone a good way toward neutralizing the benefits of the elevated omega-3s.
This is especially the case if you chose to get your omega-3s through fish oil supplements. Unless you are diligent in removing grain- and vegetable-based fats, the omega-6s will easily overwhelm the omega-3s and negate the ratios to the point of non effect.
The goal isn’t to remove all omega-6s, just to get the ratio into the healthy range of 3:1 or less.
There are some omega-3s found in plants. Early on it was thought that omega-3s were created equal.
The vegetarians thought flax seed and soybean oil would bring on the same benefits that ruminant/seafood products would do.
It turns out that is not so. Plant-based omega-3s are short-chain fatty acids known as ALA.
It is now understood that the human body cannot make use of them to much effect (as discussed in The Sacred Cow and the Big Fat Surprise). Fats derived from animals eating forages have the long-chain fatty acids of DHA and EPA: this is the good stuff.
But sellers of grassfed milk have held back in using the nutritional advantages to promote the product. If you search the package hard enough you might find in fine print “higher in omega-3s.”
But then at the same time these companies put a fish oil enhanced DHA milk on the shelf with “50 mg DHA and EPA per serving” splashed over the package boldly. They say nothing about how the grain feeding behind the milk elevates the omega-6s, keeping the ratio high in favor of the omega-6s even with the addition of omega-3s to the milk.
I think this illustrates very well the fact that traditional industrial-based agriculture will not roll over easily in favor of low-industrial foods. Those foods come to the processors in sporadic and small amounts and become a logistical and supply chain headache to deal with since it’s not a consistent supply.
That is why I think the best chance for 100% grassfed dairy to succeed does not lie in fluid milk.
When I did this math on which dairy foods are most impactful for putting omega-3s in our diets it centered around cheese, butter, cream, and full-fat Greek yogurt.
These products lend themselves well to current market trends and also to a more seasonal milk supply based around the grazing season.
This also maximizes the flow of omega-3s into our products as direct-grazed pastures are significantly superior on omega-3s compared to harvested and stored forages.
So am I hopeful for the future of grassfed dairy? Absolutely! Have I been wrong before? Oh, many times. But that is not going to keep me from enjoying cheese, butter, cream, and yogurt all in abundance.