316 Sustainability in Practice at the Dairy Farm Sector

Abstract

Abstract The United States dairy sector collectively commits to achieve greenhouse gas neutrality, optimize water use while maximizing recycling, and improve water quality by optimizing utilization of manure and nutrients by 2050. These 2050 Environmental Stewardship Goals encompass the field, dairy farm and processing stages of the supply chain. Representative leadership across the dairy value chain, including farmers, cooperatives, processors, retailers and other stakeholders, led the goals development process, which included an extensive stakeholder and public comment period and was built on a decades-long commitment to producing nutritious dairy foods that can sustainably feed a growing global population. The farm and field strategy to achieve these goals is termed the Net Zero Initiative. This initiative is an industry-wide collaboration with key value-chain stakeholders with the intention to address barriers and invest in research and partnerships for farms of all sizes and geographies to adopt practices and technologies that can provide environmental benefits on the farm, in the field and within the broader community. On-farm pilots within the Dairy Scale for Good workstream will contribute to Net Zero Initiative efforts by partnering with commercial operating dairies to demonstrate the ability to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve water quality and quantity, while increasing and diversifying on-farm revenue. Enteric methane mitigation is the key area of focus for the 2050 Environmental Stewardship Goals, Net Zero Initiative, and Dairy Scale for Good that is relevant to the dairy nutrition field. Practicing dairy nutritionists can make valuable contributions to these efforts by formulating balanced rations within solid feeding programs, understanding the important factors required to properly evaluate nutritional interventions to mitigate enteric methane, and understanding and articulating the environmental value feed ingredients provide in addition to nutritional contributions and cost savings.