Energy Utilization Index of Wisconsin Dairy Farms

Abstract

Hundreds of dairy farm energy audits conducted in Wisconsin were tracked in order to determine energy usage per hundredweight of milk. Energy data per each dairy farm’s milking operation were used to determine annual baseline energy use in Btu’s and then divided by the total milk production to provide an Energy Utilization Index (EUI) in Btu/cwt. Greenhouse gases associated with energy consumed, reported in metric tons of CO2, were also quantified per cwt of milk produced to serve as a greenhouse gas utilization index (GHGUI) per dairy operation. Data was entered into a catalog of dairy farm EUI’s and GHGUI’s, which can be searched by milking herd size, animal housing set up, milking system, hot water fuel source, and milk cooling system. The aim of this project is to provide the dairy industry a means of ranking and comparing a dairy operation’s energy and greenhouse gas consumption. The energy and greenhouse gases related to energy consumption for 169 dairy farms vacuum pumping, water heating and milk cooling were ranked as part of this study. In this study, dairy farms that consume less than 0.00447 MMBTU/cwt rank in the top 20% of energy efficient farms.