By Eric Jenks, Special to NEAFA
Sustainability is on the minds of many in numerous industries across America, the dairy industry included. The Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy for example, has “set aggressive new environmental sustainability goals to achieve carbon neutrality, optimize water usage and improve water quality by 2050.” While these goals are not easy, the industry has tools to continue moving towards them during 2021. “The dairy industry has been working and focused on sustainability for a number of years,” said David Darr, Chief Strategy and Sustainability Officer for Dairy Farmers of America (DFA). “That work has continued to advance in the last 24 months to the point where we have been talking more openly about reaching net zero. A fundamental driver for that goal, at least ours at DFA and even broader, is the belief in the goodness of dairy farms and dairy farming, and the belief that dairy farmers are part of environmental solutions, not problems. We as an industry are engaged and proactively working to be able to better influence environmental policies and strategies for the betterment of dairy farmers.”
For the industry to reach these goals, Darr believes a major focus has to be at the farm level. “We know that across the US Dairy industry, a majority of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions lie at the farm level,” said Darr. “It’s a must to communicate, inform and have dialog with farmers across the country.” According to Curt Gooch of Dairy Management Inc. (DMI), approximately 70% of total emissions in the industry take place at the farm level. “That’s where the majority of opportunities exist,” said Gooch. Darr and Gooch both identified four specific areas on the farm to focus on. “When we look at the carbon or GHG footprint of a farm there are four primary categories of emissions where there are opportunities for improvement,” said Darr. “There’s manure management with anaerobic digesters, soil health and carbon sequestration for crops grown for animals, renewable energy production on farm from wind or solar, and the cow itself through the emissions that ruminant animals produce. The latter can be controlled through improvement in genetics and nutrition or in housing., Nutrition is a big segment of that GHG improvement.” According to Curt Gooch, approximately 70% of total emissions in the industry take place at the farm level. Gooch is currently taking leave from his position at Cornell PRO-DAIRY to provide his expertise to DMI’s Net Zero Program.
The approach for sustainability is different for each farm. “The farms in the northeast and midwest, the traditional dairy states, they’re farms that are made up of generations of farmers and have grown over time,” said Gooch. “It’s hard to find two farms that are the same, which means that each farm has its own areas of opportunity. Some of these farms will be able to make bigger changes to manure management, others to crops and to how the cow is fed, etc.” Darr agreed. “We know that in the US Dairy industry that you can be successful and build a viable business model in many different ways,” said Darr. “However, when we talk about nutrition or feed there is not one magic solution. It’s going to be farm by farm through various feeding strategies to show improvements in GHG emissions. You can start sourcing from lower carbon sources, using feed additives like cilantro, garlic, seaweed, etc. There are a lot of things that show up in a newspaper or website, and many have merit but none of them are a silver bullet.”
“We need to meet farms where they’re at,” said Darr. “We have to be thinking about farms that are producing their own feed and how they source feed.. There are opportunities to strip till, no till, minimal till, or use cover crops; all agronomy practices that will enhance carbon sequestration in soils. That sequestration can apply to those making feed for dairy farms, even if the feed is manufactured off the farm.”
Both Gooch and Darr agreed that maximizing feed efficiency is key to moving towards Net Zero on the farm level. “The biggest challenge is the enteric methane (EM) that’s produced within the cow’s digestive system,” said Gooch. “Methane has a higher global warming potential than CO2. A more efficient cow will have less EM per unit of milk production. Feeding cows lots of forages and less concentrates results in less CO2 and methane per unit of milk produced.” Darr and Gooch both urged farmers to work with a nutritionist for best results.
“The best way to use rations to control GHG emissions is by working with a nutritionist and follow a program that maximizes dry matter intake per pound of milk,” said Darr. “The more energy that we can get into the cow generally lowers the GHG intensity associated with that cow. As we look at an intensity basis of GHG per hundredweight, there’s a correlation that as diets move towards higher levels of grain and concentrates, emissions trend lower. On an intensity basis, a cow on pasture will have a higher GHG per hundredweight than a cow that’s fed a total mixed ration. As we balance rations and target specific rations for cows, we’ll be more efficient in managing the GHG emissions associated with cows.
“It’s also not only about the ration but how we’re managing feed, said Darr. “For every pound wasted, there is a portion of land that’s inefficiently used in growing that feed. Anywhere that there’s feed loss or shrink, there is an opportunity to increase efficiency by addressing that loss. You have to think about what your practices are for pushing up feed, and what we are doing to make sure cows have access to enough feed to maximize production while minimizing waste or lost feed.”
For northeastern states, some of this GHG reduction effort has potentially been complicated by climate change. “Droughts are not helpful,” said Gooch. “Research from the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University has predicted more rain in the spring, no rain in the summer, and the evidence shows it so far. Crops that are stressed means that their digestibility isn’t the same. It’s best to check in with your nutritionist and adjust your rations as necessary.”