The Northwest and Southwest Project Grass Chapters will be holding a pasture tour that is open to the public on May 20 in Lawrence County

The tour begins at 10 a.m. at the Pasture Maid Creamery operated by Phil and Adam Dean.

Pasture Maid Creamery milks about 45 cows that graze more than 200 acres. It started selling raw milk in January 2006 and started making cheese in September 2007.

It makes six kinds of cheese. It also bottles milk that's marketed at the farm and at various retail locations in the Pittsburgh area.

It has installed a rotational grazing system, which will be part of the tour along with the cheese making and bottling facilities.

Also part of the tour is Crestview Farms operated by Warren Reagle which raises about 77 Texas Longhorns in a rotational grazing system.

The grass finished beef is marketed as freezer beef and also sold at local farm markets.

The main water source for this rotational grazing system is a solar pumping system that pumps water more than 100 feet in elevation so that water can be gravity flowed throughout the system.

The tour is sponsored by the Northwest Project Grass Chapter, the Southwest Project Grass Chapter, Penn's Soil RC&D, PA GLCI, Lawrence County Conservation District and the USDA NRCS.

To register for the tour and for directions, call the Lawrence County Conservation District at 724-652-4512.

A $6 registration fee covers a box lunch at the Lawrence County Fairgrounds.

Ron Fodor is district manager of the Butler County Conservation District.