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Jamie Vander Molen Boehl, Newtrient Senior Vice President, joined a breakout panel session at the Dairy Sustainability Alliance Spring Meeting to discuss an ongoing collaborative project with Athian, Dairy Farmers of America, ALDI, and a California dairy farmer. The panel focused on the project, of which supports the implementation of manure management technologies, and how this group of collaborators are working together to provide farms with critical connections, credible technical assistance, and long-term revenue streams.

The Fernandes family of Tulare County, California has been farming for over 100 years. Across the family’s five dairies, each of the operations has its own anaerobic digester, breaking down dairy manure to generate various forms of renewable energy from methane. Over time, these digesters are expected to reduce over 550,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide. In addition to the digesters, in the face of the challenges of climate change, each of the dairies also contain manure management upgrades such as solid-liquid separation, composting, and sand removal.

Manure, when used effectively, can be a valuable source of nutrients to growing crops and soil health. Melissa Wilson, a University of Minnesota professor, soil scientist, and water quality specialist understands that valuing manure as a resource rather than a waste is especially important to both the environment and profitability. In her career, she consults with farms on best management practices in regard to manure and in collaboration with Extension Engineer, Erin Cortus, led the creation of ManureDB, a tool that collects and aggregates manure data across the U.S. to update manure book values over time.

The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service has recently announced the investment of up to $310 million for producer conservation practices across the U.S. through its Regional Conservation Partnership Program. This farmer-first program is focusing on conservation activities in regard to soil health, water quality, and wildlife habitat improvements.

Dairy farmers have always been committed to sustainability, particularly in terms of productivity and profitability, as stewards of their land and animals to preserve the longevity of their farm for future generations to come. Supply chain companies also focus on their footprint, specifically in terms of their various scopes of emissions. Strong partnerships between food companies and their dairy farms are crucial to help mitigate the risks of adopting new on-farm technologies to lower a dairy’s footprint while remaining economically viable.

The American Biogas Council released new data showing an increase in the number of American dairies recycling their manure into renewable energy using biogas capture systems of which encompass 16 billion gallons of manure from 2.5 million dairy cows, while preventing about 1 million tons of methane emissions. With close to $4 billion invested into dairy biogas projects since 2020, this opens the door for more farms to turn their manure into renewable energy and natural fertilizer while substantial untapped potential remains across the U.S.

With synthetic fertilizer costs on the rise, manure becomes an even more precious resource of nutrients for crops. Often paying for itself, manure testing can be a feasible way to see where and which nutrients can be credited when used as a fertilizer. Manure is a valuable resource with much more value to be gained when its contents are understood and used effectively.

Goodrich Farm in Salisbury, Vermont, a 2021 Outstanding Dairy Farm Sustainability Award recipient, shares their sustainability journey to implement a digester on their farm. Throughout the process, the Goodrich family learned valuable lessons as to what worked best for their operation, from planning to reality. Not only does the digester help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on the dairy, but the facility also provides fertilizer cost savings and water quality benefits.

After nearly a decade of development by Dairy Management Inc., USDA, and others, the Ruminant Farm Systems (RuFaS) model has been released. RuFaS can benefit farms through the FARM Environmental Stewardship program by providing a “what if” analysis before taking a potential risk in implementing a new technology or practice. Using a tailored, whole-farm approach, RuFaS simulates how changes in management influence productivity and environmental outcomes to provide guidance in confident decision making for farms.

The Dairy Soil & Water Regeneration project released a new webinar series, Assessing the Health of Dairy Forage Fields: Insights from the Dairy Soil & Water Regeneration Project. The first webinar in the series focused on Wisconsin’s Driftless Region and highlighted results from a soil health baseline survey conducted on commercial farms in the area. Featuring regional experts representing researchers, the dairy supply chain, and Wisconsin dairy farmers, the webinar showcased the impact of cover crops and reduced tillage on soil health along with opportunities for continued progress.