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For more sustainable living stories, videos, and information, please visit: cookingupastory.com. Tom Trantham was one of South Carolina's top producing dairymen back in the 1980s. But he wasn't making much money. He ran a typical confined feeding operation and his feed bill alone ate up 65 percent of his gross income. Then something happened that changed his life. One day in April 1989 his cows broke out of the feeding area into a seven-acre field full of natural lush April growth—lamb's quarters, rye grass, a little clover and fescue. The next day there was a two-pound average increase per cow in milk production. Thinking maybe the cows were trying to tell him something, Trantham opened all the gates on his farm and began experimenting with grazing.

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