“Sustainability.” Whether it’s a buzzword or a bellwether for the dairy farm business of the future, it’s definitely a popular, trendy theme for food companies, regulators, and marketers alike.
“It’s become kind of frustrating to hear all the discussion…about how farmers should cut their carbon footprint, their emissions, by 20 or 30%, when you may not even know what your baseline is,” stated Shelley Mayer, Executive Director of the Professional Dairy Producers® (PDP) based in Juneau, Wis.
To serve dairy producers in overcoming that challenge, PDP has developed “Your Farm – Your FootprintTM.”The program offers dairy farmers grants of up to $9,750 per farm (covering up to 2,500 acres) to learn their farm’s environmental footprint score and understand how it is calculated. The data is confidential and shared with no one besides respective farms’ owners and managers.
Producers learn their farm’s environmental score as confirmed by three different tools. They are taught how the tools calculate their scores and identify the highest-impact practices (both favorable and unfavorable) for each farm. Users also receive practical recommendations to improve their score. Equipped with their score, farmers can then decide how to best use that information on their farm – and with whom to share their results.
The data also will be anonymously aggregated from all participants so that it can serve as a benchmark in peer group discussions to help farmers see how their farm compares to similar dairies participating in the program.
“This initiative will give you the opportunity to know what your numbers are, and to not only be a part of the discussion going forward, but to drive that discussion,” said Mayer.
Farms that undergo the initial baseline evaluation also may be eligible for a cost-share program through PDP as they take their environmental management efforts to the next level.
Additional information on You Farm – Your Footprint, including a video that shares perspectives from dairy producer who have already used it, can be found here.
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