Animal Nutrition Workstream - Pathways to Dairy Net Zero

Reducing the carbon footprint of a dairy operation can go hand in hand with the operation’s efficiency, profitability, and sustainability.

These pillars are bridged together by nutrition.

This is why Pathways to Dairy Net Zero (P2DNZ) partnered with Trouw Nutrition to launch a global pre-competitive Animal Nutrition Workstream, which was kicked off with a webinar on January 17.

View the webinar recordings here.

The goal of the workstream is to help support and guide research on innovative solutions to decarbonize the dairy sector.

The workstream will provide leadership in the dairy nutrition space, focusing on opportunities to minimize the environmental impact of dairy production through innovative forage, feed and feeding developments and technologies.

The immediate goals of the new Animal Nutrition Workstream include:

Identifying high-impact development areas and assembling workstreams to address them
Creating a pre-competitive and collaborative forum to identify and address barriers to implementing and scaling solutions
Demonstrating the dairy sector’s commitment to achieving sustainability goals

The webinar allowed Pathways and Trouw to bring together global leaders in animal nutrition:

Javier Martìn-Tereso, Ph.D., Ruminant Research Center Manager, Trouw Nutrition
Liz Homer, Ph.D. Ruminant Technical Development Manager, Trouw Nutrition
John Newbold, Ph.D., Professor of Dairy Nutrition, Agriculture & Business Management at the Dairy Research Centre at Scotland’s Rural College
Frank Mitloehner, Ph.D., Professor and Cooperative Extension Air Quality Specialist; Director of CLEAR Center Department of Animal Science, University of California, Davis
JJ Degan, Ruminant Manager of Global Strategic Marketing, Trouw Nutrition.

The presentations focused on the role nutrition can play in reducing a farm operation’s overall carbon footprint while improving a herd’s ability to milk production.

As illustrated in the graph, 70 to 80 percent of dairy cattle’s carbon footprint can be found in feed and enteric fermentation, underlining the premise that producers can make a large impact on their carbon footprint with how the feed is being produced and transported to the farm and the everyday feeding decisions they are making.

The main takeaways from webinar included:

Farmers can reduce their herd’s carbon footprint by as much 30 percent if they commit to a daily action plan.
The Lifetime Daily Yield is an important tool to make sure milk production is maintained while improving the carbon footprint
Feeding high-quality forage can result in a dairy cow eating an additional two kilograms of feed, decreasing the amount of feed compound they need and, in turn, reducing their carbon footprint by three percent.
Producers who elevate the nutrition of their calves the moment they are born can produce more milk and maintain milk production levels while reducing herd size.
How producers can analyze the data they have gathered and use it to reduce their herd’s carbon footprint.
The importance of yearly reviews of nutritional farms on the farm

January’s webinar is one of a series from P2DNZ that is dedicated to reducing dairy’s greenhouse gas emissions.

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