Cutting Bessie’s carbon footprint can pay off to the tune of more than $1,000 per cow each year, according to a recent study.
Researchers from the University of Guelph teamed up with colleagues at Wilfrid Laurier University; the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs; and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada to scrutinize data from 142 Ontario dairy farms.
They categorized those farms as low-carbon emitters or high-carbon emitters based on everything from the greenhouse gases created in the production and transport of feed all the way to manure storage. The differences between the two groups were striking.
On average, the highest emitters pumped out four times the carbon dioxide equivalent of the lowest emitters to produce a litre of milk. Meanwhile, low emitters earned more per cow — an average of $1,200 per year. That’s because many of the farming practices that cut emissions also enhance milk production and reduce costs.
On average, 44 per cent of a dairy farm’s carbon footprint comes from enteric fermentation — the process of breaking down feed that occurs within the cow’s digestive system, which leads to methane-loaded farts. Using nutritionally balanced total mixed rations reduces farts and also increases milk production and growth rates.
Production and supply of feed were also hefty carbon contributors, accounting for roughly a third of greenhouse emissions. And as dairy farmers know very well, feed also makes up a hefty chunk of expenses. Growing your own cuts those costs, lets farmers control the quality and eliminates the emissions created by trucking it in from somewhere else.
Meanwhile, targeted feeding — adjusting rations to each cow’s nutritional needs based on her stage in the lactation cycle — improves feed efficiency and shrinks the farm’s carbon footprint. “Efficient use of feed has a big influence on total farm emissions,” says the lead author of the study, Susantha Jayasundara.
According to Jayasundara, these results prove that dairy farmers don’t have to choose between reducing greenhouse gas emissions and boosting their bank balance. And that’s true for operations large and small. “Farm size is not important,” says Jayasundara. “It’s not necessary to be a big farm to be profitable.”
— Julie Stauffer