Towards more sustainable milk production with integrated farm

With growing demands from customers for improved environmental performance and transparency throughout the food chain, the pressure is on farmers to reduce emissions at a farm level and strive towards a more sustainable dairy farm.

In the pursuit of net-zero and better dairy sustainability, the ambition of many farmers is to improve production efficiency by producing from less, creating financial gains too. The first step towards achieving more sustainable dairy farms is often identifying ways to use available resources more efficiently, thereby improving productivity, and as a result increasing dairy farm sustainability.

An Integrated Approach Delivers More Sustainable Dairy Farming

Taking an integrated approach to reducing emissions across the whole farming business is the best way to progress towards net-zero and dairy farming sustainability. Rather than relying on a single solution, like using feed additives to improve feed efficiency, farms can achieve multiple emission reductions by taking a more comprehensive approach. This could involve better managing the microbial environment of bedding and manure or producing higher-quality silage using specific inoculants, such as MAGNIVA, which help maintain overall silage quality while reducing dry matter losses and waste.

Feed Management Is the Key to Improving Sustainability of Milk Production

Producing higher quality forage can be one piece of the jigsaw in reducing the carbon footprint of dairy production, helping agriculture to meet its net-zero targets.

Feed rate per liter of milk is another driver that can help reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, therefore incorporating products into rations that improve feed efficiency is another easy win. Feed wastage through poor feed conversion efficiency is a big cost to a farm business. Addressing feed wastage can be a core element in moving to a more sustainable dairy farm.

There are many demands on farmers. For example, for dairy producers to be profitable they must produce good quality milk at the lowest cost achievable in their system, but now there is the added pressure to achieve this while having less impact on the environment. If farmer want to secure their business, they have to think about the future and the expectations of their buyers and governments to provide evidence of more sustainable milk production processes.

Impact of Live Yeast Diets on Dairy Farms

Manufacturers supplying agriculture can help farmers to respond to increasing market demands to reduce the impacts of dairy farms. For example, life cycle assessment (LCA) studies can provide precise environmental information about products used on the farm. Globally, LCA is the most widely accepted environmental assessment methodology used by businesses, governments and other stakeholders; including by Lallemand Animal Nutrition, which is committed to measuring the environmental footprint of its products.

Pierre-Marie Guineheuc, LCA expert at Lallemand Animal Nutrition, emphasizes the importance of trials that evaluate the impact of products within farming systems.

“While LCA examines every stage of production – including raw materials, energy use, transportation, and waste – and measures various environmental impacts to give us a complete picture; making improvements at the farm level remains vital,” he explains. “ These farm-level changes are key to increasing efficiency and ultimately reducing the carbon footprint of dairy and meat products.”

For example, an LCA study on the use of Lallemand Animal Nutrition’s rumen-specific live yeast, LEVUCELL SC, in dairy cow’s diet; showed that its contribution to the carbon footprint of 1kg of Fat Protein Corrected Milk (FPCM) was less than 0.05%.

The study further shows, in a dairy farming models typical of Northern Europe, by improving feed efficiency and milk production; feeding the live yeast can lead to a reduction in carbon footprint per kg of milk by at least 3% to 6%, compared to scenarios where no yeast was fed to the cows.

By optimizing rumen function and therefore feed efficiency, the trials showed that more milk and higher percentages of its fat and protein components could be produced per kilogram of dry matter consumed, as the yeast improves feed.

A Move Towards More Sustainable Dairy Farming

Many factors can help reduce emissions on dairy farms, from reducing age at first calving to maintaining animal health and in consequence reducing the risk of occurrence of some disease such as mastitis; though some may be more challenging for individual farms than others. By enhancing the value of the farm’s own resources and improving feed efficiency with scientifically proven interventions, more sustainable dairy farming is within every farmer’s reach, whatever their system.