Carbon

Effective Ways to Enhance Profitability Through Diversification and Innovation

Thu, 18 Sep 2025 12:38:10 GMT

In today’s challenging economic landscape, dairy producers are facing the squeeze of tight margins, pushing them to explore various ways to diversify and secure their operations. With milk revenue not as robust as it used to be, it’s imperative to expand income lines to ensure long-term sustainability. Kevin Dhuyvetter, an agricultural economist and dairy technical consultant with Elanco, offers insights on how dairy producers can effectively diversify while managing core business operations.

Diversification: Strategic Choices and Challenges
For many dairies, large or small, there is a growing trend toward generating income beyond milk sales. Methane digesters, on-farm processing, agritourism and product extensions like ice cream and cheese businesses are just a few of the avenues being embraced. One inspiring example is Ken Smith from Virginia, who creatively transformed an old truck stop property into the successful Moo-Thru ice-cream venture in 2006.

“We sold 15,000 cones in the first three weeks,” Smith says. “People asked if we’d franchise this, and we’d only been open 60 days.”

The Smiths sold the family dairy, Cool Lawn Holsteins, a 1,000-cow dairy with a 30,000-lb.-plus herd average to their son, Ben, so their attention could go toward their ice cream endeavor.

(Photo provided by Cool Lawn Holsteins)

Today, Smith, his wife, Pam, and their daughters help operate and manage the ice-cream portion of the family business, while their son, Ben, owns and operates the dairy, Cool Lawn Farm, home to 850 cows.

While diversification offers promising income opportunities, it brings challenges. Dhuyvetter advises producers to examine whether new ventures complement or compete with their core milk production business. An ice cream business could boost profitability but might also demand significant time and management, potentially conflicting with dairy operations.

A New Income Option: Beef-on-Dairy Opportunities
One lucrative option for dairy producers is beef-on-dairy operations, which Dhuyvetter highlights as a complement to traditional dairy business. This involves breeding cows to produce beef-cross calves, allowing dairies to tap into the beef market. However, it’s crucial for producers to evaluate their breeding strategy and potential market involvement to avoid competing with milk production needs.

Ben Smith of Cool Lawn in Virginia has gone against the popular beef-on-dairy trend.

“While most of the industry is going the beef-on-dairy route, we’ve focused on selling high-quality sexed Holstein semen,” Ben Smith says, noting this has added dollars to their bottom line.

Calculating the right percentage of cows to breed for beef is vital. Dhuyvetter stresses the importance of understanding your farm’s needs for replacement heifers to ensure enough resources are allocated to core milk production activities. Producers must decide between retaining ownership of the calves or selling them at birth based on which option yields a higher return.

“Should I be breeding cows to beef? For most producers, the answer is yes, but the next two questions are the ones you need to think about,” he says. “What percent of my cows should I breed to beef? What do I do with the beef-cross calves produced?”

Sustainability and Carbon Market Ventures
Beyond production diversification, producers can embrace sustainability projects like methane digesters or carbon markets. These ventures are not universally accessible, primarily due to their significant capital requirements, but they offer promising revenue potentials.

Dhuyvetter advises careful consideration of economic reversibility before investing in such technologies, ensuring decisions support long-term financial goals. Elanco, for instance, provides opportunities for monetizing emissions reductions via carbon marketplaces using products like Bovaer and Rumensin.

For Smith, sustainability has always been a focus, and since 2023, the farm has leveraged several opportunities to enhance their practices. Manure injection, backed by private sector studies on carbon capture, has been a notable success.

“We had done very little, mainly because we didn’t have the equipment,” he says, adding that Northern Virginia doesn’t have a surplus of custom applicators, so it didn’t make a lot of sense prior to 2023 for them to do this. “Now, our neighbors are happier. We’re happier. We’re getting the full value of that nitrogen, and not to mention, we’re getting an incentive to do this practice.”

Navigating the Future of Dairy Revenue
For dairy producers, diversification and innovation are more than contemporary trends; they are longstanding methods of enhancing resilience and profitability. By analyzing new revenue streams for complementarity with existing operations, understanding the economic implications and considering reversibility options, dairies can strategically enhance their income.

“One hundred years ago, you had a bull calf, and you probably didn’t sell it. You probably fed it to your family, which is diversification by a different path,” Dhuyvetter says. “And we went through some tough years in the late ‘80s and into the ‘90s, and we always talked about having alternative revenue resources to survive in farming. Carbon monetization is another step on that path.”

Ultimately, dairy producers are tasked with navigating a complicated financial landscape and deciding which alternative revenue paths best suit their operations. These efforts ensure an additional cash flow vital to sustaining their farms for years to come, striking a delicate balance between tradition and innovation.

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There are Many “Wheys” to Feed Dairy Cows

Tue, 24 Jun 2025 19:00:00 GMT

It’s the ultimate recycling story -- one that could boost a dairy farm’s sustainability and possibly even carbon credits, while maintaining excellent nutrition and production. Feeding liquid whey could be the way to bundle these multiple benefits in one package.

Whey is a co-product from cheese and yogurt production, and it’s often readily available in dairy-concentrated regions where dairy manufacturing is centered among the cows. It was once considered a total waste product, until value-added processing techniques converted and stabilized it to capture its nutritive merits in more portable and storable forms.

Now, dried whey powder, permeate, and whey protein concentrate are widely used in everything from pet food to calf milk replacer and baked goods to bodybuilding supplements.

But due to logistics and storage challenges, an estimated 40-50% of whey produced in the U.S. is still discarded – often discharged as sewage. In addition to wasting nutrients, this practice can create a high biological oxygen demand that must be managed carefully to prevent water pollution.

Enter the humble dairy cow. She produced the original foundations of whey, and she can consume and recycle the elements that remain. In terms of dairy nutrition, whey is a highly concentrated energy source because it is made up of 60-70% lactose. It also provides a moderate amount of protein (6-8%) and is rich in calcium, phosphorus, sodium, and potassium.

Liquid whey typically contains about 15-30% solids, which means it adds a good deal of moisture to a TMR. It’s also a rumen-friendly feedstuff in that its lactose is readily fermented and can enhance microbial protein synthesis – as long as it is balanced in the TMR to prevent acidosis. Its sodium and potassium levels also need to be monitored to maintain DCAD balance.

Dairy nutritionist Paul Dyk, MSc, PAS, owner of Forward Dairy Consulting, LLC, Fond du Lac, Wis. and partner with GPS Dairy Consultants, works with several clients who successfully feed fresh whey. “It’s an excellent and economic source of sugar that can replace higher-cost ingredients,” said Dyk.

He shared the two largest challenges with feeding whey are constancy and storage. “There can be a lot of variability in whey, so you definitely want a supply that comes from a single cheese type to ensure a relatively consistent product batch-to-batch,” Dyk advised.

Sweet whey, with a pH of about 6.0-6.7, is a co-product of hard cheeses like cheddar, Swiss, and mozzarella that are produced with a rennet-based coagulant. Acid whey is the result of lactic-acid-based coagulation of products like Greek yogurt, cottage, and ricotta cheese, with a substantially lower pH ranging from about 4.0-5.1, plus higher mineral content.While straight whey is usually not shipped directly to the dairy, whey permeate (less protein) and delactosed permeate (DLP -- some lactose removed) are common liquid products being delivered to dairies.

Dyk said the perishable nature of whey is the other factor that can make it difficult to feed. “A dairy feeding liquid whey will need bulk-tank storage agitate it, and at least 7 days’ worth of storage capacity,” he advised. “The source plant will generally want to move it out as quickly as possible, so you’ve got to be equipped to manage it on your end.Turning the whey over weekly while agitating can keep the product fresh.”

He has seen dairies successfully embrace fresh-whey feeding, generally at about 1-4% total dry matter in the TMR. “Depending on the circumstances, a cheese plant might even be willing to give it away, but there is the investment in trucking and storage that have to be factored in,” Dyk stated.

For lactating rations, dried whey is an alternative that can still make sense in the commodity mix, with advantages in storage, shelf life, and precision in the ration.

Researchers are also looking at alternative strategies to maximize the value of whey. Among the innovative projects in progress are utilizing whey as a fermentation and moisture substrate for silage; using new methods like ion exchange to process and purify condensed whey products; and extracting the water from weigh for drinking and wash water on dairies as an antidote to water scarcity.

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Tips to Generate Extra Cash Flow to Add Profitability for Dairy Producers in 2025

Mon, 16 Jun 2025 16:13:08 GMT

As we inch closer to the second half of 2025, the outlook for profitability for dairy producers is a topic of significant interest. Ben Laine, a dairy analyst with Terrain, shares that while 2025 is not shaping up to be an exceptional year in terms of profits, it is still manageable.

One of the key factors affecting profitability is feed prices, that have softened compared to the past few years. Alongside manageable feed prices, there is solid demand for dairy products, and exports have been strong. In fact, amid domestic challenges, the U.S. dairy export volume, measured in milk solids equivalent (MSE), grew by 3% in March, marking the highest monthly export volume since February 2023. Despite the looming concerns about trade situations and tariffs, there are signs that these issues are beginning to stabilize.

Exploring Alternative Profit Sources
Laine highlights how dairy producers have been diversifying their income sources to help during volatile milk prices over the past several years to enhance their cash flow. He points out initiatives such as incorporating beef on dairy, which represents an alternative revenue stream beyond the traditional focus on milk production.

Dan Basse, president of AgResource Company emphasizes that the production of beef-on-dairy crossbreds needs to be in every dairy herd. He doesn’t foresee an end to this demand any time soon, noting that the market is attempting to incentivize dairy producers with substantial financial offers, with some wet calves generating $1,000 plus, indicating a stable market through at least 2028.

Other sustainable revenue avenues that are gaining traction include the use of digesters and carbon credits. These strategies not only add to the revenue but can also act in a counter-cyclical manner, helping to mitigate fluctuations in income that are typical in agriculture.

Innovative Practices at MVP Dairy
The ethos of sustainability is also shared by MVP Dairy in Selena, Ohio. Ken McCarty, one of the dairy owners, says their business model is crafted with a focus on social, environmental and animal welfare components, alongside economic viability. McCarty asserts that their partnership thrives on a shared commitment to these values.

On their expansive 4,500-acre farmland, MVP Dairy’s dedication to a holistic approach is evident. Emphasizing manure management, soil health, biodiversity and animal welfare, the family has made significant strides in sustainable agriculture. Methods such as no-till farming, grid soil sampling and precision irrigation showcase their dedication to reducing environmental impact.

The results are impressive. Last year alone, their sustainable practices led to a reduction of 6,755 tons of CO₂ emissions, akin to the annual energy usage of 662 American homes. Their modern manure management system not only curbs emissions by 60% compared to traditional systems but also provides irrigation water, underscoring how innovation drives sustainability forward.

As producers continue to innovate and seek diverse income streams, the focus remains on leveraging existing operations to find value beyond the milk check. This approach is becoming increasingly important in smoothing out the volatility associated with dairy farming.

By adopting innovative strategies and expanding income sources, dairy producers can better navigate the challenges and opportunities that 2025 presents, ensuring a more stable financial future.

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Learn Your Farm’s Carbon Score

Mon, 31 Mar 2025 15:00:00 GMT

“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 Footprint^TM.”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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Washington Grower Shares How To Scale Regenerative Farming

Wed, 04 Dec 2024 17:11:54 GMT

By Deborah Huso

Austin Allred’s family has been farming the Royal Slope region of Washington state between Seattle and Spokane for three generations. He and his two brothers, Derek and Tyson, farm a combined 6,000 acres. They grow potatoes, cherry and apple trees and produce honey, while also running 10,000 beef cattle and milking about 6,000 dairy cows. The family also recently added a worm farm and a beef processing facility.

Like many producers with combined operations, Royal Family Farms focuses on finding a purpose for every acre and every byproduct. In fact, the Allreds have been practicing regenerative farming before it really had its own term.

“My dad was no-tilling before it was billed as regenerative,” Allred explains. “He was doing it to reduce diesel usage. He was also very conscientious about planting woodstock in corners of fields.”

Allred and his siblings took the same approach as they expanded the farm operations.

“I accelerated and defined [what Dad was doing] and put some strategy to it,” Allred says, with the goals of building organic matter in the soil, sequestering carbon and cleaning wastewater.

Royal Family Farms

(Royal Family Farms)

Extended Crop Rotations and Grazing
Allred recognizes the kind of stress agricultural production can put on the land, hence the many inputs required in traditional farming. But Royal Family Farms has demonstrated that not only do regenerative practices work, but one can accomplish them at scale.

“Anytime you’re growing a crop that a human can digest, you’re going to put a lot of pressure on soil,” Allred says. “It’s really hard to do a total no-till strategy. You can’t plant weeds with your wheat.”

Allred says potatoes are the least regenerative crop the farm grows, but says they counteract it by working cattle into a long crop rotation for added soil fertilization.

“If 20% of the ground is in potatoes, that land doesn’t come back online for another six to seven years. And during those years, we do a lot of composting,” he says. “Other years we do cover cropping and planting multispecies crops to grow microbial activity.”

Allred grazes his beef cattle on the cover crops, which provides feed while simultaneously adding more soil amendments, such as nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P).

Upcycling Everything
Nothing goes to waste at Royal Family Farms. The Allreds work with all the processors who clean and box their apples and turn their potatoes into French fries to retrieve all of the products that don’t qualify for human consumption to be upcycled into protein, as Allred explains it, providing food for their cattle in the form of potato culls or damaged fruit or nutrient-rich compost for their fields. Meanwhile any wood chips produced when the Allreds retire a cherry or apple orchard is either turned into cattle bedding, used for the worm farm or processed into biochar, a carbon-rich byproduct.

The Allreds’ interest in biochar, a charcoal-like substance derived from organic waste, developed out of a desire to bring more carbon into agricultural systems. And for the past few months, Royal Family Farms has used four machines to burn wood chips into charcoal that, when mixed with compost, recharges carbon in the soil.

“As farmers, we are selling off carbon, whether it’s beef, milk or cherries,” Allred says. “Seventy to 80% of retired apple, cherry and pear trees in Washington were getting burned at the end of their effective life. Biochar was a way to bring in more carbon and upcycle and compost it.”

“We try to upcycle every byproduct into something of value,” Allred says. “Eventually it all becomes a soil amendment. It’s only a loss if we let that carbon into the air.”

Reusing Wastewater With Worms
Water is a critical part of any farming operation, and Royal Family Farms sought out a better way to
filter wastewater from their dairy operations and reuse it. What was their regenerative solution? Worms.

“We started investing in what is now the biggest worm farm in the world about eight years ago,” Allred says.

Working with a company called BioFiltro headquartered in Santiago, Chile, the Allreds’ worm farm includes eight acres of what looks like 5'-deep swimming pools. These pools are able to serve as the home for about 50 million worms at any one time.

“Wood chips make up the medium they live in, and that’s also the filter for the dirty water,” Allred explains. “The dairy is designed to flow to a low spot, where we have two 5,000-gallon vacuums that bring the wastewater to the worms.”

The worms digest the wastewater, removing heavy metals and other contaminants. The waste matter the worms produce is rich in microbials, and the Allreds take the worm castings and mix them with compost to produce nutrient-dense soil.

Royal Family Farms

(Royal Family Farms)

Eliminating Waste and Need for Inputs
Allred says engaging in regenerative practices large-scale required careful consideration of how everything could work together.

“We started integrating vegetable, fruit, protein and bees to get to the next generation of regeneration,” he explains. Allred points out that the digestive systems of cattle along with biochar create compost. “It’s all about upcycling ‘waste’ products.”

The result of instituting these practices is dramatically reduced reliance on inputs.

“This year we used no phosphorus and potassium and had equal to or greater yields without it,” Allred remarks. “And across the board, we have better quality.”

He adds the farm’s greatest payout is not having to input synthetics.

“The more natural systems we have in play, the more nutrients we keep in the loop, the less we have to go get inputs,” he says.

Allred acknowledges farmers can filter water through mechanical or chemical systems, but says natural systems are typically cheaper to implement.

“Natural investments are always going to have a long-term return on investment,” Allred says. “The problem is producers often don’t have the margin to always be investing in long-term ROI.”

Royal Family Farms’ regenerative farming practices offer payoffs 10 to 15 years out, Allred estimates.

“We’ve bridged that gap with carbon credits and vertically integrating to pick up those margins,” he says.

This year Royal Family Farms is starting to see its regenerative operations pay off in a big way.

“We purchased 90% less phosphorus and potassium [K] than we have in the past and significantly less nitrogen,” Allred says. “We’re working on nitrogen for the next five years because ruminants make P and K.”

“Regenerative farming starts to gobble up the biggest expenses any farm is going to pay — your fertilizer bill and your chemical bill,” he says. “On the cattle side, your feed bill is your biggest expense. Regenerative farming gives you higher-quality, local food.”

No one knows better than you that the future of your farm depends on balancing practices and profits that sustain your land, resources and family . The stakes are evolving based on weather patterns, technology, market demand and more. What actions are you taking to remain resilient?

Turning Sustainability into Profitability with Carbon

Tue, 09 Apr 2024 20:45:27 GMT

Sustainability – It’s a 14-letter word with about 1,400 different definitions. At its most basic form, however, sustainability boils down to balancing the needs of the present with the needs of the future. And for today’s dairy producers, that means being able to turn a profit while also better serving the environment.

Practicing environmental sustainability is nothing new for dairy farmers, while participating in carbon programs is. Despite these programs being relatively new and complex to understand, farmers have several compelling reasons to be involved in them, including environmental responsibility and economic incentives to regulatory compliance, enhanced reputation and long-term viability.

Though the reason to consider joining a carbon credit program can be enticing, taking the time to research how these programs work, what the process involves and how much they pay can cause some farmers to sit out on the sidelines according to Heather Gieseke, a leader of Pinion’s sustainability practice.

“Recent data shows farmer enrollment in [carbon] programs is less than 5%,” Gieseke notes. “Many are skeptical about climate change or don’t understand how carbon programs work. Others wonder if there’s really any value in them, and some are concerned that carbon programs will become government-mandated, although the U.S. market today is voluntary.”

Despite these programs being somewhat complex to navigate, Gieseke encourages producers to not immediately rule these programs out. Instead, she spurs them on to explore what unique opportunities exist.

RNG: An Economic Opportunity

During the 2023 Milk Business Conference, Karen Scanlon, Executive Vice President of Environmental Stewardship for Dairy Management Inc., hosted a Climate Smart Agriculture panel to discuss the different carbon program avenues dairy farmers can take to not only become more sustainable but to also serve as an additional profit source.

When it comes to actively participating in a carbon program, Evan Barton is no stranger to the game. In 2021, Barton, who milks 3,000 cows just 40 miles east of Columbus, began conversations with Clean Energy Fuels, a natural gas distribution company in Newport Beach, Calif., about installing a methane digester on his operation.

Within a few months, Barton decided to partner with Clean Energy and began construction on a methane digester to help supply renewable natural gas (RNG) to a nationwide pipeline. Not only does this help a farm improve its sustainability efforts, but it also can generate additional income.

“We’re taking the methane that’s coming off of our manure lagoons and capturing it,” Barton says. “Then we’ll turn it into natural gas that Amazon will use at a fueling station to power trucks. So, it will be a win on both sides. We will reduce our methane emissions, and at the same time, we will offset the emissions that would be coming from diesel trucks or gasoline vehicles delivering Amazon packages.”

According to Barton, the RNG that will be produced on his operation will take 50 large semi-trucks off of fossil fuels and replace it with sustainable fuel made from the manure on his farm. In turn, the renewable fuel from Barton’s digester will then equate to carbon credits, allowing him to generate additional revenue from his cattle.

“As it gets harder and harder to be profitable in the dairy industry, we could potentially make more money selling carbon than we make selling milk,” Barton adds.

Consultants Provide Additional Profit Avenues

While supplying RNG through a methane digester system has become one of the most popular methods for getting involved in a carbon program, the list does not stop there. According to Nicholas Goeser, Principal of Carbon A List, there are a variety of ways to participate.

One such avenue is through partnering with a carbon consulting firm, like Carbon A List, to identify low-hanging fruit opportunities.

“A lot of the focus for our program is helping farmers spot environmental factors on their farms in which they want to improve and then working to find them a partner to provide either private or federal dollars to help enable those decisions and encourage next steps,” Goeser says.

According to Goeser, environmental consultants work hard to stay up to date on relevant carbon credit developments, can provide technical assistance and help facilitate networking opportunities for farmers interested in sustainability initiatives. In addition, these professionals can provide personalized guidance, conduct carbon assessments and assist with program enrollment and implementation.

“We’re working hard to try and layout the best opportunities in front of farmers for their specific operations,” he adds.

Some of these opportunities include:

Installing renewable energy systems such as solar panels, wind turbines or biomass digesters.
Enhancing soil carbon sequestration through practices such as conservation tillage, cover cropping or rotational grazing.
Feeding nutritional additives within the ration to help minimize methane production.

Teaming Up with Processors

Similar to consulting companies, many dairy cooperatives and processors are willing to help farmers find the right fit when it comes to carbon programs. According to Tim Trotter, CEO of Edge Dairy Cooperative,processors can play several important roles in helping producers participate in carbon programs and implement carbon reduction initiatives.

“At Edge Dairy Cooperative, we work to empower our farms to put forth strategies that help with local resource issues. As this has developed, we have found out from the brands that we deal with that there’s a lot of interest in where our food comes from and what’s happening on the farms. So, being able to share that sustainable story with the brands our farms sell to is a powerful message. And those brands are willing to potentially pay a premium for that sustainable data.”

Obtaining that data, however, is a key piece of the equation to have success within a carbon program. Whether it’s utilizing technology or having a third-party conduct an assessment, it’s important to have accurate information on hand.

“When you have a farm that’s climate-smart, it is using all the great technologies available to document their proof. We want to help give farms a robust toolbox that they can use to deploy on their farms and take to the carbon market. Letting them use the tools they want to capture that data and then, year-over-year, document their progress, is an important piece to that puzzle,” Trotter adds.

Words of Advice

While carbon programs are an exciting venture that can provide economic incentives to become more sustainable, it is important to do your homework before diving all-in. Gieseke offers the following points to consider before agreeing to participate in a carbon program.

1. Does it seem too good to be true?

Carbon programs are not a get-rich-quick scheme. If a program is promising you the world and you have to do nothing in return, you should probably ask more questions or consider other options.

2. Is the organization requiring you to purchase something in order to participate or paying you in a credit to purchase something?

Just because it’s a trusted brand from which you’ve purchased crop inputs or services in the past doesn’t mean it’s qualified to deliver on a legitimate carbon project. Most claims that applying specific products will improve carbon sequestration are not backed by legitimate or peer-reviewed research that verifies creditable improvements.

3. Do you have enough information?

Ask some technical questions, even if you aren’t an expert. The salesperson’s responses should alert you right away if the program is legitimate and if they are truly knowledgeable in the carbon arena. Here are a few to consider:

Are the credits issued through a registry?
How are the credits verified?
Who’s doing the verification?
How are the credits issued, sold and accounted for?
Who’s buying the credits? At what price?
How much does this company keep versus how much you, the farmer, receive?

Barton, Trotter and Goeser concur with Gieseke’s advice, adding several other factors to consider:

Educate Yourself: Both Goeser and Gieseke recommend familiarizing yourself with the different carbon programs and opportunities available, including their objectives, eligibility criteria, and requirements for participation.

“Understanding the specific activities or practices that qualify for carbon credits can help you decide whether or not the opportunity is worth the investment,” Goeser adds. “When in doubt, reach out to a trusted advisor or consultant.”

Assess Your Farm’s Carbon Footprint: Conducting a thorough assessment of your farm’s carbon footprint to identify areas where emissions can be reduced or sequestered is another must, according to Trotter. “Knowing where you’re at today lets you see the progress you’ve made in the future,” he says.

Implementing a monitoring and documentation processes to track the implementation and effectiveness of carbon reduction activities on your farm will be crucial. Keep detailed records of relevant data, such as emissions measurements, carbon sequestration rates, and implementation costs to demonstrate compliance and eligibility for carbon credits.

Seek Guidance: Consult with agricultural experts, extension agents, or consultants with expertise in sustainable agriculture, carbon management, and carbon markets. They can provide valuable guidance, technical assistance and support in navigating the complexities of joining a carbon program.

“I didn’t sign up to Clean Energy right away. I actually hired a consultant ,” Barton says. ”I think that was really important because I didn’t know anything about it. And having him on my side from a negotiating standpoint was very valuable.

Stay Informed: If you’re considering participating in regulatory carbon programs or compliance markets, stay informed about relevant regulations, emissions reporting requirements, and compliance obligations. Ensure that your farm meets any regulatory standards or certification requirements necessary to participate in these programs.

“I think the biggest thing that I would offer as advice is to make sure you don’t sign up for the first deal when it comes your way and talk to your neighbors. More importantly, talk to your fellow dairy producers across the country. Because there’s a lot of different deals out there. Some are good, some are not, and some are yet to be determined. But I think it’s really important not to sign up for a bad deal and get locked in and miss a great opportunity,” Barton adds.

Evaluate Economic Viability: Assess the economic viability and potential benefits of participating in carbon programs, considering factors such as upfront investment costs, potential revenue from carbon credits, and any additional incentives or co-benefits associated with carbon reduction activities.

In today’s world, companies and consumers are hyper focused on sustainability. However, dairy farmers have been focused on sustainable practices since the beginning. Now, as the need to become more sustainable grows, farmers can capitalize on their efforts through the various carbon programs that are made available to them. By embracing sustainability and actively engaging in carbon reduction efforts, dairy farmers can play a crucial role in addressing climate change while securing the future of their industry.

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Start Measuring Carbon So You Can Start Managing It

Tue, 02 Apr 2024 15:33:41 GMT

You can’t escape hearing about carbon markets, as they are becoming more complex. With the mission to become carbon neutral by 2050 the dairy industry is passionately committed to better caring for their environment. This is resulting in more conversations on capturing dairy’s carbon footprint.

At the Professional Dairy Producers (PDP) Annual Business Meeting in Wisconsin Dells, Wis., dairy producer, JJ Pagel, a PDP board member and owner and operator of Pagel’s Ponderosa Dairy, spoke on his journey to measuring his farm’s carbon footprint during a 2023 carbon pilot program.

“As dairy producers, we work every day to achieve sustainable milk production. But when it comes to demonstrating progress, industry has been handicapped by the absence of standardized metrics,” Pagel says.

PDP recently launched a program called Your Farm – Your Footprint to help producers prove how they are reducing their farm’s environmental impact.

Shelly Mayer, PDP’s executive director, shared how Your Farm – Your Footprint allows farmers to measure carbon and methane emissions to help them make informed decisions while retaining control of their data. Your Farm – Your Footprint was led by 11 fellow dairy farmers who tested the program.

Wisconsin dairy farmer, Mitch Breunig, owner of Mystic Valley Dairy, says that to be sustainable farmers need to save the planet, the people and be profitable.

“If we’re not profitable we’re not going to be sustainable,” he said and showed excitement with the PDP program, saying that if farmers can find an alternative profit source that will help with the profitability portion of the sustainability equation. “I want to have another revenue source on my farm that isn’t pushing for more and I think that sustainability is the place for that.”

Next Steps

So how can producers begin the journey to make carbon a revenue source? Mayer says the first step is for producers to measure their carbon footprint. This must happen before anyone can analyze the data performance and before anyone can reap the financial rewards that can come with that.

Pagel says that by partaking in the program, he now can confidently tell people the carbon impact his farm is making. For example, Pagel says they were able to save 352 truckloads of soil by putting in cover crops.

“We were able to get 686 passenger cars off the road in a year through planting cover crops and minimum till,” he said. “It’s a way to show people what we are doing them and put it in a way that they can understand.”

Pagel says information from the “Your Farm – Your Footprint” program is allowing producers to understand what they can do to make their dairies better each and every day.

Mayer says PDP works with many partners whose values align with trust-worthy companies. She shared that a third-party expert, Sustainable Environment Consultants (SEC), works with participating dairy producers to collect and analyze data that is readily available for most farms.

SEC will use resources like Cool Farm Tool , COMET-Farm and FARM Environmental Stewardship , which take into consideration farm-specific information like location, soil type, crop rotation, energy use, nutrient management, milk production, cow numbers, field yields and other farm-specific data. Analyses include existing practices a farm may already be implementing to reduce emissions and improve carbon sequestration.

Farm-specific sustainability reports include a carbon footprint score — calculating carbon emissions per unit of fat and protein-corrected milk. This score is an asset to producers, providing a baseline for measuring and demonstrating progress. Most importantly, the individual farm score is confidential and will not be shared unless the producer chooses to do so.

Pagel shared that one advantage of the Your Farm – Your Footprint program is the peer groups that enable producers of all sizes and geographies to compare experiences, learn from one another and brainstorm in a safe, confidential environment.

To learn more and to sign up about Your Farm – Your Footprint program, visit https://pdpw.org/your-farm-your-footprint/

New Methane Digester Complete at Tri-Cross Dairy, Begins Supplying RNG

Wed, 06 Mar 2024 19:15:26 GMT

Renewable natural gas (RNG) is certainly making a big appearance in 2024. Tri-Cross Dairy, a 5,000-cow operation located in Viborg, S.D., is the second dairy in the state within the last two months to begin supplying RNG to the natural gas pipeline via a methane digester.

According to Clean Energy, Tri-Cross Dairy’s partner for the project, the new facility is forecasted to produce 1 million gallons annually of negative carbon-intensity RNG.

The construction costs of the RNG production facility, which includes the build of digesters and processing plant, totaled $34 million and was completed in December 2023. The injecting of pipeline-quality RNG began shortly after completion. Clean Energy is in the process of filing the necessary applications to generate federal and state environmental credits. The facility is one in a series of projects in the Midwest for which the companies have partnered together.

“We anticipate 2024 to be a pivotal year in the demand for RNG fuel in the transportation market with the introduction of Cummins’ X15N natural gas engine for heavy-duty trucks. Clean Energy’s fueling infrastructure is expanding to meet that demand and we’ll need a constant source of additional low-carbon RNG to supply those stations. The new production facilities at Tri-Cross Dairy and the other farms in the Midwest that are now producing RNG is a critical component to our strategy,” said Clay Corbus, senior vice president for renewables.

Earlier this year, Drumgoon Dairy, a 6,500-cow operation in Lake Norden, S.D., also began producing RNG through its methane digester project. The facility has since begun injecting ultra-low carbon RNG into the interstate natural gas pipeline system. According to a Clean Energy press release, Drumgoon Dairy is expected to supply 1.66 million gallons of negative carbon-intensity RNG annually to the transportation market when at full capacity.

How It’s Made

While dairy cows are known for their ability to make milk, they’re also scrutinized for their ability to produce methane, a potent greenhouse gas (GHG) emission. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, agriculture accounts for nearly 10% of U.S. GHG emissions. However, the dairy industry plays a big role in being part of a global climate solution.

“Renewable natural gas is chemically the same as the natural gas you might get in your stove, but what makes it renewable is that it is sourced from landfills or dairy farms,” says Will Flanagan, vice president of strategic development at Clean Energy. “What we’re doing is gathering manure and putting it in a digester, which captures the raw methane, or biogas, that would otherwise be going into the atmosphere. Then we pipe that raw biogas to an on-site gas processing plant where we clean it up by taking out the unwanted constituents.”

Once the methane has been converted into RNG, it is injected into a local natural gas pipeline and distributed to one of Clean Energy’s 540 fueling stations.

For more on sustainability, read:

Have You Heard of Scope 3? It Offers Opportunity for Agriculture

Thu, 08 Feb 2024 19:43:45 GMT

You might have heard the term Scope 3 thrown around. It’s all the buzz lately in the world of sustainability. But what does it mean?

A company’s emissions are broken down into Scopes 1, 2 and 3. This helps them account for different categories of their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions:
• Scope 1 refers to direct emissions controlled by the company, which include emissions from their operations and facilities.
• Scope 2 addresses indirect emissions from energy an organization purchases or brings in to operate the business.
• Scope 3 covers indirect emissions from the company’s supply chain, both upstream and downstream.

Scope 3 is where things get interesting for farmers and the rest of agriculture’s “upstream” supply-chain partners. Upstream means all of the materials and transportation required before something gets to the company for production or processing.

We’re all aware companies are evolving their sustainability strategies. Increasingly, they’re working to meet the sustainability demands of their customers and the various voluntary initiatives established by their leadership and downstream supply-chain partners. As a result, businesses must be able to measure and reduce their Scope 3 emissions. It’s especially important for companies whose supply chain includes agriculture. Like it or not, agriculture is considered one of the primary contributors of GHG emissions and climate change. McKinsey & Company recently reported agriculture is responsible for about 24% of global emissions, making agricultural emissions a major focus of decarbonization efforts.

Onerous as this sounds, this creates tremendous opportunities for farmers who have already reduced emissions, or will in the future, through on-farm practices, such as reduced energy usage, improved soil health measures and reduced machinery passes on a field.

When will Scope 3 opportunities be available in your area? This is the big question. Many existing and new companies are collaborating to understand which methodologies, strategies and systems are required to support this new type of sustainability accounting in a way that’s consistent and realistic for our fragmented industry. New pilot programs are popping up regularly. But, so far, they have been concentrated in very small regions and vary greatly from one program to the next.

If you believe you have practices that could support Scope 3 reductions, talk to your local agribusiness partners to see what’s available in your area. Consider reaching out to your grain elevator, meat packer, dairy processor or other supply-chain partners.

If there is a new sustainability company or expert reaching out to you for a meeting, take the time to listen. They could be bringing you new opportunities to monetize sustainable practices on your farm or providing valuable information to help better educate you on decarbonization or Scope 3 opportunities in your area. Not every opportunity might be right for your farm, but taking the time to get better educated on the landscape will be valuable now and in the future.

Heather Gieseke’s insights help position agribusinesses for growth and profitability – from risk management to carbon mitigation, emission reduction and other agriculture advocacy related initiatives. A leader of Pinion’s sustainability practice, Heather champions sustainability for the farm, family and business.

3 Questions to Consider About Carbon Programs

Wed, 24 Jan 2024 17:28:05 GMT

By Heather Gieseke

When it comes to carbon programs, most U.S. farmers are sitting on the sidelines.

Recent data shows farmer enrollment in the programs is less than 5%. Many are skeptical about climate change or don’t understand how carbon programs work. Others wonder if there’s really any value in them, and some are concerned that carbon programs will become government-mandated, although the U.S. market today is voluntary.

Yet, having worked in agriculture for my entire career and specializing in carbon the past few years, I know farmer awareness and curiosity about these initiatives is expanding dramatically.

Carbon programs pay farmers for carbon credits, which are then sold in the market to someone looking to offset their carbon footprint. In a carbon program, a farmer is required to implement specific practices, and the program should follow a protocol established with a carbon registry, such as the Climate Action Reserve.

If you’re considering enrolling in a carbon program, keep these points in mind:

1. Does it seem too good to be true?
Carbon programs are not a get-rich-quick scheme. If a program is promising you the world and you have to do nothing in return, you should probably ask more questions or consider other options.

2. Is the organization requiring you to purchase something in order to participate or paying you in a credit to purchase something?
Just because it’s a trusted brand from which you’ve purchased crop inputs or services in the past doesn’t mean it’s qualified to deliver on a legitimate carbon project. Most claims that applying specific products will improve carbon sequestration are not backed by legitimate or peer-reviewed research that verify creditable improvements.

3. Do you have enough information?
Ask some technical questions, even if you aren’t an expert. The salesperson’s responses should alert you right away if the program is legitimate and if they are truly knowledgeable in the carbon arena.
Here are a few to consider:

Are the credits issued through a registry?
How are the credits verified?
Who’s doing the verification?
How are the credits issued, sold and accounted for?
Who’s buying the credits? At what price?
How much does this company keep versus how much you, the farmer, receive?

Shop around if you’re interested in participating in a carbon program. Consider a few from both trusted and new players in the market. Just make sure you’re showing up with a learning mindset and a healthy level of skepticism in order to find the right one.

Heather Gieseke’s insights have helped position agribusinesses for both growth and sustainability — from risk management to carbon mitigation and emission reduction. A leader of Pinion’s sustainability practice, she champions sustainability for the farm, family and business.

South Dakota Dairy Expected to Supply 1.66 Million Gallons of RNG with New Production Facility

Mon, 22 Jan 2024 17:35:28 GMT

With the dairy industry working towards the common goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050, more and more producers are looking for ways to increase the sustainability efforts on their farms. One method some operations are capitalizing on is the ability to produce renewable natural gas (RNG) by the means of a methane digester.

Drumgoon Dairy, a 6,500-cow operation in Lake Norden, S.D., has done just that after recently completing a new RNG production facility in partnership with Clean Energy Fuels Corp. Finishing the project in December of last year, the facility has since begun injecting ultra-low carbon RNG into the interstate natural gas pipeline system. According to a company press release, Drumgoon Dairy is expected to supply 1.66 million gallons of negative carbon-intensity RNG annually to the transportation market when at full capacity.

“Completion of the RNG project at Drumgoon Dairy, along with several others that are right behind it, is already making a contribution to controlling harmful greenhouse gas emissions,” says Clay Corbus, senior vice president of renewables at Clean Energy. “Being a multi-generational operation, Drumgoon’s owners are always thinking about the future, whether it’s bringing in the latest technology to better track and monitor their cows or transforming their herd to antibiotic-free. Adding a RNG digester that captures the methane produced by Drumgoon’s cows and turning it into a clean fuel is the ultimate recycling project.”

How It’s Made

While dairy cows are known for their ability to make milk, they’re also scrutinized for their ability to produce methane, a potent greenhouse gas (GHG) emission. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, agriculture accounts for nearly 10% of U.S. GHG emissions. However, the dairy industry plays a big role in being part of a global climate solution.

“Renewable natural gas is chemically the same as the natural gas you might get in your stove, but what makes it renewable is that it is sourced from landfills or dairy farms ,” says Will Flanagan, vice president of strategic development at Clean Energy. “What we’re doing is gathering manure and putting it in a digester, which captures the raw methane, or biogas, that would otherwise be going into the atmosphere. Then we pipe that raw biogas to an on-site gas processing plant where we clean it up by taking out the unwanted constituents.”

Once the methane has been converted into RNG, it is injected into a local natural gas pipeline and distributed to one of Clean Energy’s 540 fueling stations.

A Dynamic Partnership

The Drumgoon Dairy $38 million RNG digester project was financed through Clean Energy’s joint venture with bp, developed with Dynamic Renewables, and is one of several RNG projects the three companies have partnered to build at dairies throughout the Midwest. Clean Energy is purchasing RNG from approximately 100 dairies across the U.S. and all the RNG produced at Drumgoon will be available at Clean Energy’s fueling infrastructure.

Clean Energy’s sales of RNG into the transportation market for the first nine months of 2023 grew 17% over the same period of 2022, and with customers such as UPS, Republic Services, LA Metro, Knight Swift, Amazon and others, the demand of the ultra-clean fuel is expected to expand.

For more on sustainability, read:

USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack Reveals the Final COP28 Declaration Will Not Focus on Agriculture and Food

Mon, 11 Dec 2023 20:28:02 GMT

Despite calls from countries to focus on food and agriculture as a way to meet the world’s climate goals, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack revealed that the final COP28 declaration would not focus on agriculture and food. This decision was influenced by a request from the G77 group of developing countries for additional review and participation related to agriculture and food, leaving no time for negotiations.

While Vilsack highlighted the importance of a special day dedicated to agriculture and food policy and the participation of U.S. farm and food leaders, he considered the Emirates Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems, and Climate Change, signed by 152 nations, and commitments by countries and companies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and fund related projects as significant achievements. However, some observers were disappointed because this would delay progress until June 2024.

Today, at the first-ever day dedicated to food and agriculture at a COP conference, we’re proud to highlight the steps we’re taking to tackle the climate crisis, invest in food systems innovation, and bring new opportunities to producers #COP28 pic.twitter.com/69uyWVdmcZ
— Secretary Tom Vilsack (@SecVilsack) December 10, 2023

Vilsack mentioned the Agriculture Innovation Mission (AIM) for Climate , a joint initiative between the U.S. and the United Arab Emirates aimed at addressing climate change and global hunger through increased investment in climate-smart agriculture and food systems innovation.

Regarding reducing meat consumption, Vilsack said he had not heard much about that goal but instead emphasized strategies for reducing methane emissions related to livestock. The U.S. is taking a leadership role in methane reduction through research, feed additives, recapturing methane for energy production, and managing manure.

A Focus on Dairy to Start

Leading into the meeting, there was a lot of talk about how agriculture practices and food production may be impacted by the climate goals. And to start the meeting, dairy was on the list.

According to a report from Reuters last week, advocacy groups said that tackling livestock methane should be a major priority at this year’s COP28 summit. In addition, at the summit in Dubai this week, six of the world’s largest dairy companies announced an alliance to cut methane emissions from dairy cows.

Reuters reported members of the Dairy Methane Action Alliance include Danone, Bel Group, General Mills, Lactalis USA, Kraft Heinz and Nestle. The Alliance says it will begin reporting their methane emissions by mid-2024 and will write methane action plans by the end of that year.

While the world’s largest dairy companies are working together, it’s also sparking an argument of how essential dairy is in the diets of people around the globe.

#UN #Roadmap to 1.5 #Livestock plan unveiled at #cop28 listed in this thread.

Livestock plays a crucial economic role contributing to the livelihoods of about 1.7 billion poor people and 70 percent of those employed in the sector are women
— Steven Middendorp (@smiddendorp22) December 10, 2023

Cop28: An Explanation

What is COP28? It’s a meeting of politicians, diplomats, NGOS and representatives of national governments. There are also other stakeholders who attend to try to influence the outcome. The meeting actually dates back to June of 1992 when 154 countries signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). At the time, those countries agreed to combat human impacts on the climate.

COP meetings have been held every year since, with a different country becoming the COP president. Since that country is in charge of organizing the meeting, the host city typically moves year to year. Then, any new agreements struck from that year’s meeting, is typically named after the host city, such as the 2015 Paris Agreement and the 2021 Glasgow Climate Pact.

According to the COP28 website, the goal is to “correct course and accelerate action to tackle the climate crisis.” The website also states, “COP28 is where the world will take stock of progress on the Paris Agreement – the landmark climate treaty concluded in 2015 – and chart a course of action to dramatically reduce emissions and protect lives and livelihoods.”

The Goal

According to COP28 organizers, the science shows “to preserve a livable climate, the production of coal, oil, and gas must rapidly decline, and global renewable power capacity – including wind, solar, hydro and geothermal energy – needs to triple by 2030. At the same time, financing for adaptation and investments in climate resilience need a quantum leap.”

COP28 organizers say the goal is to create “concrete solutions to the defining issue of our time.”

Global Dairy Companies Announce Alliance to Cut Methane at COP28

Wed, 06 Dec 2023 19:18:19 GMT

Six of the world’s largest dairy companies will soon begin disclosing their methane emissions as part of a new global alliance launched at the United Nations climate summit in Dubai on Tuesday. Livestock is responsible for about 30% of global anthropogenic methane emissions, from sources like manure and cow burps, according to the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization. Advocacy groups have said that tackling livestock methane should be a major priority at this year’s COP28 summit.

The five members of the Dairy Methane Action Alliance - Danone, Bel Group, General Mills, Lactalis USA, Kraft Heinz and Nestle - will begin reporting their methane emissions by mid-2024 and will write methane action plans by the end of that year. Methane is nearly 30 times more potent than carbon dioxide, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, making it a major focus of attempts to curb global warming.

Reducing dairy methane emissions means providing both technical and financial support to farmers around the world to experiment with possible solutions, like feed additives, said Chris Adamo, vice president of government and public affairs at Danone, on a call with reporters.

“There’s not one silver bullet. We have to look at this full spectrum of different options for farms across different geographies,” he said. Danone this year pledged to cut methane emissions from its fresh milk supply chain by 30% by 2030.

Cutting human-caused methane by 45% this decade would keep global warming under 2 degrees Celsius, according to a 2021 assessment by the Climate & Clean Air Coalition and the United Nations Environment Programme.

Companies involved in the new alliance do not need to pledge to reduce their methane emissions by a specific amount, but stronger measurement and reporting are key tools for the companies to eventually reduce their emissions, said Katie Anderson, senior director of the Environmental Defense Fund’s business-sector food and forest program, on the press call.

“This is driving more accountability,” Anderson said. EDF is convening the alliance. Globally, food production accounts for about a third of global greenhouse gas emissions. Leaders of this year’s COP have pledged the summit will include action on food sector emissions.

(Reporting by Leah Douglas; Editing by Josie Kao)

Secretary Vilsack Shares Climate Smart Agriculture Creates Enormous Opportunity for Dairy

Wed, 18 Oct 2023 21:42:42 GMT

On World Food Day, Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, joined the stage at the 2023 International Dairy Federation World Dairy Summit in Chicago, Ill.

Secretary Vilsack told the crowd that there are four areas impacting dairy - and agriculture in general - that keep him up at night.

“Obviously at the top of the list is the impact of climate,” he said in front of an international crowd from more than 50 countries. “The impact it is having on our ability to produce more, and the challenges climate presents in making sure we remain productive as our world population increases. I’m also concerned about the conversion and consolidation that’s taking place in American agriculture.”

Vilsack shared that since 1981, the U.S. has lost more than 438,000 farms and, a decline in 230,000 dairy operations in that same period.

The third area that concerns Vilsack regarding agriculture is the concentration of income that is taking place within agriculture.

“We had a record year in farm income last year in the United States, which is oftentimes good news for a Secretary of Agriculture to deliver,” he says. However, he shared that only 7.5% of farmers received 89% of that income. “This explains why so many farmers continue to struggle,” he adds.

Vilsack also pointed out that the international crisis has caused much disruption to our supply chain.

Collaborative Togetherness

“I think climate-smart agriculture creates an enormous opportunity,” he said, sharing that U.S. farmers want a system that is both voluntary and incentive-based. We want a system that understands the market and encourages the market to recognize the contribution we’re making.”

Vilsack outlined that all in the dairy industry need to work collaboratively—from the farmers, environmental groups and conservations groups, to major food companies, retailers and universities. The effort starts with a $3 billion commitment from the USDA with funding extended to 141 projects across 87 commodities. For dairy, this totals 18 projects, like:

The California Dairy Research Foundation, $85 million to work with farmers in California dairy farmers in California to look at methane reduction technologies.
Edge Dairy Cooperative, $50 million across 18 states to look at feedstock sustainability.
Dairy Farmers of America in 14 states working to figure out a circular economy opportunity through climate-smart agriculture.

“The theory, and I believe it’s a good one, is that there are consumers in the U.S. who are interested and are willing to invest in sustainably produced products,” he said. “It’s critically important that we do the measuring, monitoring, verification and reporting of these results.”

Efforts are focused on helping farm operations regardless of their size.

“This is an exciting future for dairy and for U.S. agriculture and I think providing leadership globally,” Vilsack says.

Understanding the true volatility of the dairy economy, Vilsack underscores that nobody works harder than dairy farmers.

“And nobody cares more deeply about their farming operation, about the environment, about their community than farmers,” he said. “We’re going to continue to need for strong production from American agriculture to feed the world. But we’re also going to make sure that we create that opportunity for small and mid-sized producers so that we can remain vibrant in our rural communities.”

Carbon Friendly Can Be Budget Friendly, Too

Mon, 19 Jun 2023 17:00:00 GMT

You might say Shawn Saylor was regenerative before regenerative was cool.

The Rockwood, Penn. dairy producer has used no-till farming methods for as long as he can remember. Farming in the mountainous region of southwest Pennsylvania’s Laurel Highlands means he deals with hard, heavy clay, nutrient-deficient soils and a short growing season. Plus, he needs to plant about two-thirds of his operation’s 1,500 acres to corn every year, to make enough corn silage to feed his family dairy’s 680 cows.

Saylor recently told the audience of the “Cow-side Conversations” podcast from the Center for Dairy Excellence that he started using cover crops about 10 years ago to boost soil tilth and fertility. That means cereal rye and triticale seeding starts literally the day after a field of corn silage is chopped in the late summer or early fall.

“It definitely takes some organization, and the first couple years, maybe three, you’ll see a yield loss as you transition to cover crops,” he shared. “But it has really helped with soil tilth, especially no-tilling into dry soils. You don’t need as much moisture to soften the soil.”

About 200 acres of cover crops at Hillcrest Saylor Dairy Farms are harvested for cereal grain silage each spring. The rest of the cover-crop acres are directly planted into and used as green manure. Precision ag technology has helped with that process in recent years.

“It used to be a real fight planting into that green base,” said Saylor. “If it gets too tall, it’s hard to see the markers at all.” He has been using Precision Planting for 6-7 years, and added autosteer capabilities for the first time in 2022.

“Autosteer really has saved us a lot of stress. You plant your first pass or outline, and it will do the rest, in perfectly straight rows,” he noted.

The Saylors drag-line apply 30-40% of their manure to prevent field compaction. Because they harvest a lot of grass hay over the summer, their fields already get plenty of traffic. “Truck traffic is the worst for compaction,” said Saylor. “So, we try to stay off of it as much as we can while adding fertility.”

That manure is a co-product of methane digestion, as the dairy added a digester during an expansion project in the early 2000s. Saylor said the post-digester effluent makes nutrients more available for plant utilization.

He built the digester himself because there weren’t many commercial options available at the time. Saylor said the benefits to the business have been wide-ranging. From cost reductions due to generating their own electricity and heat, to odor abatement and reduced bedding costs thanks to dried manure solids, he couldn’t be happier with the decision to take the deep dive into the digester adoption.

All of these practices were in place at the Saylors’ dairy before terms like “sustainability” and “climate-smart” became buzzwords in the agricultural and political landscape. Saylor said he did them because they made sense and added value to the business.

Recently, a group from TeamAg, Inc. evaluated the Saylors’ dairy to quantify their net carbon production. The result: the business was found to be almost carbon-neutral, despite no strategic efforts to specifically control carbon output.

“I think it’s helpful if farms look at regenerative ag practices not just to manage their carbon footprint, but to boost their profitability,” declared Saylor. “A lot of these things will probably save them money.”

For more on sustainability, read:

Land O'Lakes says U.S. Carbon Farming Payouts Topped $5 Million in 2022

Wed, 17 May 2023 15:33:34 GMT

Truterra LLC, the carbon farming and sustainable agriculture unit of Land O’Lakes Inc , paid U.S. farmers $5.1 million in 2022 for capturing and storing 262,000 metric tons of carbon via sustainable practices, the company announced on Wednesday.

The payments to 273 growers enrolled in its carbon program were up from about $4 million paid out in 2021 for sequestering 200,000 tons of carbon, the U.S. farm cooperative said in a release.

The program is among a growing number of offerings from agricultural companies such as Corteva Inc, Bayer AG and Cargill Inc which aim to capitalize on rising demand for environmental credits while making farms more sustainable.

The companies tap satellite and weather data and log sustainable farming practices such as reduced tillage or planting winter cover crops to calculate volumes of greenhouse gasses captured and locked into soils.

They then use the environmental credits created to offset the climate impact of other parts of their businesses or sell them to companies looking to reduce their own carbon footprints.

Microsoft Corp is among the largest buyers of Truterra’s carbon removal credits. Others, such as rival carbon farming program provider Indigo Agriculture, have sold offsets to JPMorgan Chase & Co, Barclays Plc and The North Face.

(Reporting by Karl Plume in Chicago Editing by Matthew Lewis)

How Can Dairy Producers Utilize Carbon Credits to Benefit Climate and Their Bottom Lines?

Tue, 09 May 2023 17:11:57 GMT

Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy , an America’s Conservation Ag Movement partner, unveiled some big moves in the private sector that may make it easier for dairy producers to capitalize on carbon credits to benefit both climate and their bottom lines.

In their latest Member Discovery Series webinar, Newtrient COO Chris Kopman discussed a partnership made public in February that aligns Newtrient and its mission to reduce the environmental footprint of dairy with Athian and its carbon credit marketplace designed to fund livestock sustainability.

During the webinar, Kopman expressed optimism of the growth that the dairy industry has made toward climate-smart efforts to get to this point.

“A lot of the solutions are either here or on their way,” he said. “We think there’s a huge opportunity within dairy and dairy farms to reduce the environmental footprint.”

Kopman said that his company’s seed investment in Athian would give dairy producers a “seat at the table” to further develop climate-smart goals that benefit the entire value chain.

Athian CEO/Founder Paul Myer highlighted goals in bringing their platform to producers and the benefit it could yield for the industry.

“Typically when we make a presentation, we talk first about how we move the needle on climate change, and that is the overarching goal of all these interventions and the processes that take place on-farm,” he said. “When I start talking about this challenge, we look at the commitments that the industry has made to cut the greenhouse gas footprints over time. In this group specifically, we really take the producers’ view, which is that lots of consumer package goods companies, retailers and foodservice providers have made commitments, and certainly packers and processors in dairy co-ops have made similar greenhouse gas reduction commitments. By and large, producers and farmers have not made these commitments, but they’ve got a commitment to do what is right for their herds and for the land that they farm.”

According to Myer, the total U.S. GHG emissions now stands at 6 billion MT, with animal agriculture making up 254 million MT or roughly four percent of that.

“If you break this down into a carbon credit that’s tied to a single metric ton of greenhouse gas reduction, there’s a huge potential to generate significant revenue if we are able to make on-farm changes that cut greenhouse gas emissions,” he said.

One barrier that both Kopman and Myer see as integral to achieving these levels is funding.

“The economics are what we have to get right in order for that to happen,” Kopman said. “We need that economic piece to be there to voluntary incentivize farms to take the step to implement climate smart solutions.”

Kopman and Newtrient are looking for opportunities within the Inflation Reduction Act and the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) to help make these on-farm changes achievable for producers.

Currently, the partnership is collecting data on more than 70 U.S. farms, with Athian’s calculator sitting on top of current on-farm assessment tools to leverage data collection.

While this partnership between Newtrient and Athian is a big step for producers, it is only a piece of the work that needs to be done to fully realize dairy’s role in climate-smart change, Myer said.

“Everything that we do is underpinned by the overall industry and the scientific community coming together to take the greenhouse gas problem as a whole and work together to solve it,” he said. “We fundamentally believe that no single company can solve this problem on their own, just as no single farmer can solve this problem. It really needs to be an overall industry effort.”

To learn more and see what upcoming events and webinars the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy has to offer, visit their website.

Come to the Table

Fri, 17 Mar 2023 14:03:58 GMT

When you wake up in the morning, your first thought is caring for your cattle, land and employees — and maybe that first cup of coffee. Likely the focus is not on sustainability. The buzzword might seem to be just that — a catchphrase. But it’s vital for the dairy industry to make sustainability a priority.

Look to the European Union, and we quickly are reminded the U.S. dairy industry is indeed fortunate to have a voice to help write the narrative on sustainability. Understanding how leading brands, such as Nestlé and Starbucks, are responding to consumer trends and expectations is also important. Not that long ago, the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy, founded by U.S. dairy farmers, pledged aggressive environmental goals to achieve greenhouse gas neutrality, optimize water usage and improve water quality by 2050.

California dairy producer Arlene VanderEyk spoke at the 20th annual Milk Business Conference, sharing today’s consumer is willing to pay more for a product that meets their environmental values and goals.

“But, [the consumer is] also very skeptical about companies that make claims,” she says. “So, we have to tell our story, and we must get our messages across.”

Honored with a U.S. Dairy Sustainability Award in 2021, VanderEyk and her family have been dairying for four decades and have worked with Calgren Dairy Fuels, LLC and Maas Energy Works Inc., on a project that generates renewable transportation fuel. In addition, the VanderEyk’s installed solar panels in 2015 and just finished installing additional panels this year to offset 65% of the dairy’s energy.

“We are always looking to new avenues to better our dairy,” she says. “We are open to new ideas and new opportunities and understand what works for one dairy, might not work for another.”

Understanding it is an all-hands-in approach, VanderEyk says she and her family have worked closely with their co-op, Dairy Farmers of America, who she says is playing a leading role in helping reduce greenhouse gas emissions for the dairy industry.

“DFA is actively endorsing renewable energy, such as wind power, not only on our farm but also in the plants,” she says. “It is helpful when they bring partners to the table.”

It will take a united approach from the dairy industry to build trust with consumers, VanderEyk says. Leading consumer companies such as Nestlé and Starbucks, are already doing their part to push dairy sustainability forward.

NESTLÉ

Started more than 150 years ago as a dairy company, Emily Johannes, head of diverse and sustainable sourcing for Nestlé USA, says the company’s focus has not changed in terms of how they deliver what consumers want through their iconic brands, such as Carnation, DiGiorno and Stouffer’s.

“We are passionate about what our consumers want, and we are doing the actions necessary in our dairy supply chain to help improve social and environmental conditions for future generations,” Johannes says.

Like the dairy industry, Nestlé has set sustainability targets, and a detailed, time-bound plan to help the company reach net zero by 2050.

“We have interim goals, like 20% greenhouse gas reduction by 2025 and a 50% greenhouse gas reduction by 2030,” she says.

Being transparent, Johannes says Nestlé has shifted its company focus under the Net Zero road map, which has resulted in renewed dedication to work with farmers and make the needed financial investments.

In October 2020, Nestlé became the first of what the dairy community hopes will be many partners joining the Net Zero Initiative, contributing, funding and expertise to help propel the entire industry’s progress toward a more sustainable future. Nestlé brings a wealth of knowledge and industry leadership to the table, and an earnest commitment to supporting U.S. dairy farmers in environmental advancements and technology adoption.

In June 2021, Trinkler Dairy Farm, a supplier to Carnation in Modesto, Calif., became the first dairy to receive grant support from Nestlé. Pilot farms such as this seek to identify, demonstrate and de-risk new sustainable practices and technologies that increase on-farm profitability while reducing greenhouse gases and water use and improving water quality.

STARBUCKS COFFEE COMPANY

Starbucks Coffee Company’s director of sustainable dairy, Angela Anderson, says their environmental goals mirror Nestlé, with a focus on reducing carbon waste by 50% by 2030. Anderson says Starbucks is evaluating how they make opportunities for carbon and water strategies.

“We are trying to build a program we can scale collaboratively,” she says. “I think about the last 20 years and our success in coffee, what we’re building for dairy is very similar.”

In 2020, Starbucks made a commitment to sustainability and continues to accelerate progress in three key areas: environmental stewardship, farmer and worker wellbeing, and quality of the animal.

According to Anderson, “As we think about dairy sustainability, we see it as a big opportunity for our company and look at this industry as part of a solution.”

IN IT TOGETHER

Anderson says Starbucks understands its future is also connected to the future of farmers.

“We know it’s never been more expensive to be in agriculture as a whole,” she says. “We understand we have a responsibility to try to figure out solutions together.”

When it came to working with their coffee farmers, Anderson says they learned the importance of sharing resources through their farmer support center. Additionally, Starbucks has invested $50 million toward coffee farmers to help ensure sustainability practices and is also investing $10 million in the U.S. Dairy Net Zero Initiative.

Purchasing a lot of fluid dairy products, Anderson says Starbucks is passionate about getting more involved with sustainable dairy practices.

“Knowing we can do this for coffee, it is a natural fit to ask how we do that for dairy, too,” Anderson says.

Like Starbucks, Johannes says Nestlé is also not starting from scratch and understands a lot has already happened on dairy farms regarding sustainability.

“We buy a lot of dairy, whether it’s cheese or powders. And because of this kind of level of dairy [purchasing] it really came to the top for us as a company in terms of where do we need to focus,” she says.

Nestlé has invested more than $3 billion globally in their goal to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.

“We’re excited we’re in it together and we’re taking the journey together as opposed to other ways this might have happened,” Johannes says.

BE OPEN TO OPPORTUNITIES

Five years ago, VanderEyk was one of a dozen dairies that partnered with Calgren Renewables Fuels and Maas Energy Works on a cluster of dairy digesters in the Golden State. Today, 19 producers and a total of 65,000 cows are connected by a 22-mile underground pipeline that includes an anaerobic digester at each dairy. VanderEyk encourages other producers to be open to opportunities that come about and lean in and work with companies, such as Starbucks and Nestlé, that are enthusiastic to learn more and partner with dairy. Because of a sustainability focused partnership, the VanderEyks hosted a tour on their farm, which included the person who purchased all the food for Disneyland.

“He was really impressed with how we take care of the cows and how sustainability actually works,” VanderEyk says.

This led to another opportunity to visit with Harley Pasternak, who is a nutrition expert and celebrity trainer. VanderEyk says it was an incredible opportunity and fellow producers must be willing to share their sustainability story.

“We have a lot of support from our checkoff and from our processors to help us do that,” she says.

When your alarm clock goes off and you pull on your bootstraps, realize others are inspired by your efforts. Continue to share your dairy’s story, as the effort and push toward sustainability are being driven further by leading consumer companies. This is ultimately because the consumer cares deeply about how farmers care for their cattle, land and employees, and at the end of the day, your hard day’s work is a big part of the sustainable solution for a better world for tomorrow.

Understanding Carbon in Manure Management

Fri, 24 Feb 2023 16:49:58 GMT

Nature is desperate to keep soils covered with living plants for two important reasons. Firstly, for temperature moderation from intense heat (and cold) and moisture retention and absorption. Secondly, for “sugars” plants photosynthesize from sunlight and carbon dioxide and then push out through the roots system to feed bacteria and other critical soil biology.

Just like diets for cows, the most basic feed ingredients are energy and protein. For soil life, those diet ingredients are carbon and nitrogen. In agronomy, we talk about healthy soils striking a balance of carbon and nitrogen of 11 parts carbon to 1 part nitrogen, or a C:N ratio of 11:1. Many farm fields, where dairy manure is applied and crops are harvested for feed, test very low in carbon. Many dairy fields have C:N ratios of 3:1 or 4:1. These soils are tight, have poor water holding capacity and have no resilience to swings in weather.

Soil Health

High-carbon soils are soils that have a C:N ratio closer to 11:1 than 4:1. Their soils are friable, dark colored and mellow and retain more moisture. High-carbon soils make excellent use of manure and produce forages higher in nutrient density.

We lose soil carbon with tillage, with forage harvesting and from applications of manure after forage harvesting. Dairy manure can range from high nitrogen, liquid manure with C:N of 10:1 to bed pack and dry lot manure with a C:N of 40:1. Soil biology prefers a plant residue C:N ratio of 25:1. Liquid dairy manure is not going to build soil organic matter or soil carbon. Bed pack and dry lot manure can rebuild carbon because they combine high carbon with a source of nitrogen.

Winter Absorption

Work from the University of Wisconsin and Penn State demonstrates how grasses can absorb and hold manure nutrients over winter. Winter hardy cover crops planted behind the chopper and allowed to grow to a reasonable biomass are excellent conditions to apply manure into either in fall or in spring. Later, when the covers are terminated at corn planting time, they begin to break down and those valuable nutrients are returned to the cash crop. With this strategy, we can manage manure nutrient release with the timing of plant breakdown and feed our crop for months and build soil carbon at the same time!

Adding a few pounds of grass into alfalfa stands can dramatically improve the absorption rates of summer manure applications. A sound rule of thumb is to always apply manure to a green cover. So much of the value of manure applied to the bare ground is lost. Luckily now, we are starting to see better ways to use manure and build carbon if we can extend out the growing season with green covers.

Bill Powel-Smith is the owner of LandCares within GPS Dairy Consulting, an innovative soil health and dairy forage consulting business serving customers throughout the Midwest.

Nature is desperate to keep soils covered with living plants for two important reasons. Firstly, for temperature moderation from intense heat (and cold) and moisture retention and absorption. Secondly, for “sugars” plants photosynthesize from sunlight and carbon dioxide and then push out through the roots system to feed bacteria and other critical soil biology.

Just like diets for cows, the most basic feed ingredients are energy and protein. For soil life, those diet ingredients are carbon and nitrogen. In agronomy, we talk about healthy soils striking a balance of carbon and nitrogen of 11 parts carbon to 1 part nitrogen, or a C:N ratio of 11:1. Many farm fields, where dairy manure is applied and crops are harvested for feed, test very low in carbon. Many dairy fields have C:N ratios of 3:1 or 4:1. These soils are tight, have poor water holding capacity and have no resilience to swings in weather.

Soil Health

Winter Absorption

For more on sustainability, read:

Bill Powel-Smith is the owner of LandCares within GPS Dairy Consulting, an innovative soil health and dairy forage consulting business serving customers throughout the Midwest.

Considering Carbon Markets? Follow This Advice

Wed, 18 Jan 2023 19:32:37 GMT

Vir Clar Farm has become a dairy leader by embracing technology. One example illustrated on their Fond du Lac County, Wis. Farm is their methane digester that was installed in 2004.

“We’ve been producing electricity for roughly 800 homes a day here utilizing the manure as a fuel source,” Katie Grinstead with Vir Clar Farm says.

Powering a community by what was once considered waste is not only helping the farm’s sustainability efforts, but it’s also generating additional income.

“We’re actually taking something that is considered a waste product to most by producing electricity, separating bedding, the dry solids off for bedding, reducing the odor. We’ve been doing that already and we’re going to take it to the next step and produce renewable natural energy,” Grinstead says.

Carbon Market Tips

Newtrient offers the following advice when exploring the carbon markets.

Ask Questions.

Understand revenue streams to make sure there is consistent and long-term funding options. Are companies setting aggressive carbon reduction goals or seeking to green their portfolio? Learn about regulations on certain sectors, such as transportation, as well as any support from government programs for the adoption of climate-smart practices, such as the Inflation Reduction Act or Climate-Smart Commodities.

Be Familiar.

Recognize the differences between carbon markets, such as contract duration, acreage minimum, look-back period, cost-share programs, targeted buyers, product linkages, data control and privacy.

Don’t forget to ask these questions:

What are the payment periods?
What is the payment amount?
What is the minimum acreage required?
What locations are offered?
What are the data requirements?
Data ownership?
When is the program start date?
End date?
Can early adopters participate?
Who pays for the monitoring?

What farmers can do today

Support opportunities (policy, etc.) for farms to access carbon markets.
Evaluate and question solutions and the impacts on your farm and future markets.
Keep your options open, knowing many more opportunities will be coming down the pipeline.
Stay curious about how your farm can diversify beyond milk.
Talk with your trusted farm advisers and seek out contacts who know about carbon markets.
Record, record, record.
Talk to a farmer who is doing it today.

Is Carbon the New Cash Cow? Elanco CEO Thinks Dairy Farmers Could Make More Money Off Carbon Than Milk

Thu, 20 Oct 2022 16:19:22 GMT

Work on Vir-Clar Farm this time of year is in constant motion. A dairy doesn’t have a day off—but fall manure applications means the rhythm is even faster than normal, even with supply chain headaches.

“We’ve had problems getting some supplies, we’ve had problems getting parts and products like milking gloves and blood tubes, penicillin now has been a problem; products that I could have never even imagined being a problem getting,” says Katie Grinstead with Vir Clar Farm in Fond du Lac County, Wisc.

Grinsted admits she’s seen a lot of firsts since 2020, but what may be one of the most challenging pieces is the amount of money she’s had to pay up front in order to secure parts and other products she needs on the farm. Another heavy weight isn’t just the availability of feed for dairies out West, but the cost of feed products across the U.S.

“Feed costs continue to be our number one expense here at the dairy. Some ingredients have been up as much as 50%,” she adds.

Grinstead says across the board, most costs are 30% higher today, forcing the dairy to become even more efficient.

“We’ve embraced automation in our feed center,” she explains. “All of our expensive ingredients are put in bins. We utilize augers and the computer to really only use the precise amount of each ingredient that we need.”

Move to Automation

She says the move to more automation has helped produce higher accuracy on the farm, now achieving 98% accuracy every time they make a batch of feed. That efficiency is helping not only in terms of money savings, but also with their cattle.

Automation is helping address the second biggest cost on their farm today – labor. The dairy is an industry that’s been labor tight, even before the pandemic. That’s why Vir-Clar Farm has made employee retention a top priority.

“We started a few years ago really focusing on our employees and which employees maybe want to learn and grow and maybe go from being a milker to then grow into being somebody who’s in the maternity barn, who then might be the next assistant herdsman,” says Grinstead. “That’s really helped us maintain employees that have the drive to want to do more.”

The dairy also offers a ride service to and from work, as well as a uniform program.

“We like to have fun,” she says. “We try to have fun parties, whether it’s Christmas or a summer party. We recently had a pizza party to celebrate being done with corn silage. I cook when they’re in the fields late, just whatever we can do to try to make it a good work environment for them.”

Powering a Community Via Waste

What also makes this dairy farm a leader is how they continue to embrace technology. The farm put in a methane digester in 2004.

“We’ve been producing electricity for roughly 800 homes a day here utilizing the manure as a fuel source,” she says.

Powering a community by what was once considered waste is not only helping the farm’s sustainability efforts, but it’s also generating additional income.

“We’re actually taking something that is considered a waste product to most by producing electricity, separating bedding, the dry solids off for bedding, reducing the odor. We’ve been doing that already and we’re going to take it to the next step and produce renewable natural energy,” Grinstead says.

Strong Vision for the Future

Dairy’s ability to turn waste into an energy source, is something Elanco, the world’s second largest animal health company, sees as an opportunity.

“There are numerous countries, all parts of the value chain governments that are saying we are going to do something about the climate,” says Jeff Simmons, president and CEO of Elanco .

Simmons not only thinks climate neutrality is possible for the livestock industry, he believes the industry is already well on its way. Simmons says there are four ways farmers can look at not only reducing their environmental footprint, but also cashing in on carbon.

“There’s on the land, what are you doing on the land; no- till, all the different things that are done the land,” he says. “Second, what you do in the animal. That’s where Elanco comes in; the ruminant of the cow. How do we create less methane coming out of that cow by what we do in the cow with nutrition with other things. Third is out in the land is digesters, it’s saying what are we doing with the manure in the waste? And lastly, is what are you doing in the value chain with ESG? Whether that’s purifying water and getting credits from a nestle, or whether that’s some you know, someone that’s trying to target and want that.”

Dairy is the Part of the Climate Solution

Simmons is so confident in livestock’s ability to be part of the climate solution, he thinks dairy farmers could soon make more money off carbon credits than they do off the dairy products they sell.

“It starts when you look at what your is footprint today? How much greenhouse gas are you creating? What are you doing to reduce that? And can you get to a state where you’re actually taking care of all the gas you create where you’re not making any footprint? And that comes from methane to carbon, etc. So, it is possible because people are getting closer and closer,” says Simmons.

Simmons’ statements aren’t just bold, he says he’s seeing some of the most innovative dairy producers across the country who are less than two years away from making more money off the carbon contracts they sell than the dairy products they produce.

Hungry for Animal Protein

It comes at a time when protein is in high demand, which is a fact Simmons says is often overlooked and under celebrated.

“Animal protein demand continues to grow,” he says. “It’s probably the biggest misnomer, even inside our industry, sometimes. The last 10 years, we have increased 60 million metric tons, the prediction is the next 10 years, we’ll need to get to 90 million, another 50% more growth. Why? There are people in other continents that are increasing their GDP. But the second is, you’re seeing this Western diet, more protein, less carbs. What we produce is under tremendous demand, the fastest growing food segment today is animal protein. When demand is up, you turn and say, ‘Hey, there’s real opportunity here for the farmer to play a role.’”

Supply Chain Impacting Timeline

While dairy leaders like Simmons say livestock producers are part of the climate solution, those on the farm level says supply chain issue are also impacting the timeline to grow renewable natural energy.

“The supply chain has actually slowed that whole process down, that should be up and running,” says Grinstead. “We had equipment and parts and stuff sitting on ships that we couldn’t get here. We’re very anxiously waiting for that project to be done.”

A project driving diversity on Vir Clar Farm could finally cross the finish line in 2023, at a time when livestock producers could be the climate solution.

For more on sustainability, read:

Dairy Industry Making Strides Toward Reducing Its Carbon Footprint

Wed, 17 Mar 2021 19:21:43 GMT

Source: Journal of Dairy Science

Agricultural greenhouse gases (GHG) make up 8.1% of total U.S. GHG emissions. The dairy cattle farming industry is being challenged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while maintaining or increasing profitability. In a study published in the Journal of Dairy Science^®, researchers report that farms with lower carbon footprints and higher-producing cows are more profitable, a win-win situation for everyone, including the cows.

Investigators Di Liang, PhD candidate, and Victor E. Cabrera, PhD, from the Department of Dairy Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison, used the Integrated Farm System Model (IFSM), available from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to simulate the performance of a representative Wisconsin dairy farm and predict both financial and environmental outputs over a 25-year period. An IFSM simulation takes into account numerous interacting processes that include crop and pasture production, crop harvest, feed storage, grazing, feeding, and manure handling. Read the abstract here.

“We found that greenhouse gas emissions per kg of energy-corrected milk production will be reduced by increasing milk production, decreasing the herd replacement rate, or improving reproductive efficiency. Therefore appropriate dairy farm management strategies could provide a solution that increases the farm profit while decreasing the greenhouse gas emissions,” noted Dr. Cabrera.

In their model, the farm had 100 large milking cows and 100 hectares of rented cropland. Topography and soil type were defined, as were crop mix (alfalfa and corn), numbers and types of farm equipment, as well as planting and harvesting schedules. The researchers measured how the model responded to two major management practices: target milk production, whereby feed allocations are varied to achieve a desired output per animal; and herd-structure as represented by the percentage of young, first-lactation cows.

“The dairy industry is committed to the economic sustainability of our farmers by selecting a new generation of healthy, long-lived, high production cows,” commented Journal of Dairy Science^® Editor-in-Chief Matthew C. Lucy, PhD, Professor of Animal Science at the University of Missouri. “What the models are telling us is that working toward this goal will reduce the carbon footprint of our industry.” He believes that this study demonstrates that reducing dairy carbon footprint is not contrary to farm profitability, and in fact, the two are complementary.

Better Feed Efficiency Lowers Carbon Emissions, Increases Profit

Wed, 17 Mar 2021 19:20:32 GMT

A German study of organic and conventional dairy farms found that improving feed efficiency under both production schemes not only reduces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, but increases profits as well. The study was published in the December Journal of Dairy Science .

The study involved 81 organic and conventional herds in southern Germany, and was conducted by farm management specialists from Hohenheim University. The researchers found grass-based, organic herds produce on average 1.61 kilogram CO2 equivalents per kg of milk produced compared to 1.45 kg CO2 equivalents/kg for conventional farms. That represents about an 11% difference.

However, by improving grass and forage stands, improving feed efficiency and reducing the acreage needed to feed cattle, organic herds could reduce their GHG emissions and improve profitability by $1.20/cwt. Conventional herds, by improving their feed efficiency, could reduce their GHG emission even more and improve profitability by $1.75/cwt.

The authors’ conclusion: “Improved education and training of farmers and consultants regarding GHG mitigation and farm profitability appear to be the best method of improving efficiency under traditional and organic farming practices.”

Dairy Carbon Footprint 2% of U.S. Total

Wed, 17 Mar 2021 19:07:47 GMT

Large dairy operations tend to have lower green house gas footprints because of more efficient feed conversion.

Ten research papers and one editorial in the International Dairy Journal confirm the dairy industry’s carbon footprint is 2% of the U.S. total.

According to the life-cycle assessment, which looks at carbon emissions all the way from fertilizer production through consumers’ refrigerators, dairy greenhouse gas emissions are estimated to be 2.05 kg carbon dioxide equivalent for every kilogram of fat- and protein-corrected milk.

“This work is noteworthy for its comprehensiveness in looking at every stage of the fluid milk life cycle and for its data collection method,” says an editorial which leads off the special Supplement to the April issue of the International Dairy Journal. More than 500 U.S. dairy farms submitted data.

“Based on the amount of milk produced in the United States, the dairy industry accounts for approximately 2% of the total U.S. GHG emissions,” says the editorial. This is about a third less than the global dairy industry’s GHG output, which contributes 2.7% of global emissions.

One of the papers included in the Supplement notes that large dairy operations tend to have lower GHG footprints because of more efficient feed conversion. But their use of lagoons for manure storage is one area where losses occur and more efficiency could be gained, if it could be done cost effectively.

The entire set of papers can be found here .

The Race is on to Build the World’s First Carbon-Neutral Dairy

Wed, 17 Mar 2021 18:58:03 GMT

It’s no secret that climate change has become a huge focus in the United States and around the world. The global dairy industry has focused in on this concern with several countries vowing to become carbon neutral within the next few decades.

For example, the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy unveiled a ‘Net Zero Initiative’ last year in hopes of driving the industry to achieve carbon neutrality, optimized water usage and improved water quality by 2050. Similarly, Meat and Livestock Australia, which includes the dairy industry, has set a goal to become carbon neutral by 2030 “to meet consumer and community expectations.”

Recently, the country has been stricken by intense drought and extreme heat, driving the push for sustainability within agriculture. In response, government research in Victoria, Australia, has been conducted to help construct the Ellinbank “Smartfarm,” the world’s first carbon-neutral dairy farm, according to Farm Online National.

The media outlet reports that that the 500-cow farm at Ellinbank is already reputed to be Australia’s leading dairy innovation facility and has been fast-tracking innovative technologies in a research environment then showing them in a way that is accessible to the dairy industry.

Additionally, the “Smartfarm” has been funded through the government’s $115 million Agriculture Strategy, which aims to position Victoria as a leader in low-emissions agriculture and increasing the adoption of new, effective and fit for purpose technology.

Later this year, the farm will be open to visitors so farmers can witness the innovative, sustainable technology in action.

Technologies to be trialed and demonstrated at the farm include roof-mounted solar panels and battery storage, wind turbines, pumped hydro, temperature management in the dairy and the use of waste for energy, according to Farm Online National.

While there is still a long way to go in the race to become carbon-neutral, this new Australian dairy aims to hit its goal by reducing methane emissions, improving fertilizer and manure management, and by generating electricity through several options including solar, wind, hydro and bio-digestion.