Sustainable as well as cost-effective: a dairy farmer’s complicated puzzle
可持续发展和成本效益：一个奶农的复杂难题
- 关键词：
- 来源：
- Wageningen University & Research；
- 类型：
- 前沿资讯
- 语种：
- 英语
- 原文发布日期：
- 2024-11-19
- 摘要：
- How can dairy farmers make their farms meet environmental standards of the future while keeping their business operations viable? This is a challenge for the government, the sector and in practice. Wageningen University & Research (WUR) provides support through the Cows & Opportunities project.“Until the eighties, dairy farmers had relative freedom in their business operations”, says researcher Koos Verloop. “Yet, it became increasingly clear that nature and the environment are seriously affected by carbon emissions in the sector.” This initially became apparent mainly due to nitrate leaching into groundwater at dry sandy soils. Due to nitrate leaching, the suitability of groundwater for drinking water extraction was put under pressure. The problems with ammonia emissions were also clear at an early stage. Later on, the issue of greenhouse gas emissions was included as a point requiring attention. In fact, dairy farming goes hand in hand with emissions of the greenhouse gases methane and nitrous oxide, as well as carbon dioxide.This article appeared in TO2MORROW, the magazine of the TO2 Federation. This organization publishes this impact report once a year, featuring the results of research and collaboration among the five TO2 institutes: Deltares, MARIN, NLR, TNO, and WUR.TO2MORROW 2024 was published on November 19, 2024Reduced emissions per litreResearchers, public authorities and dairy farmers, jointly launched the Cows & Opportunities project 25 years ago with the aim of establishing sustainable and viable farms with the help of smart solutions. “How that should be applied is a complicated puzzle for dairy farmers”, says Verloop, who has been involved in this initiative since 2010 and offers support to dairy farmers through Wageningen University & Research (WUR). Currently, sixteen farmers across the Netherlands are participating in the project. Every year, the researchers together with the dairy farmers and their advisers, formulate “challenging but achievable” goals to reduce harmful emissions. “We study which strategies and measures they can apply”, says Verloop. For example, dairy farmers can reduce the emission of ammonia by leaving the cows out to pasture more often.Manure and urine that end up in the same place in the barn, cause more ammonia emissions. However, leaving them out to pasture more often increases the risk of nitrate leaching into the groundwater. Verloop says: “We are therefore studying how to have cows left out to pasture without adversely affecting the water quality. We already know that good turf quality can help; this can be achieved by not allowing cows to graze on the same plot of land all the time. Good turf protects groundwater. In fact, plants absorb nitrate and as a result, less nitrate leaches into the soil and groundwater.Less manure and environmental lossesThe type of feed that cows are given, affects the amount of nitrogen and phosphate produced by manure. The researcher emphasises how relevant it is for dairy farmers to offer their cows the right feed. Of course feeds are provided to keep livestock healthy and to maintain the level of milk production, but it is also important that the resulting production of nitrogen and phosphate with manure does not become unnecessarily high. This is important because farmers are allowed to spread a limited amount of nitrogen and phosphate with manure across the land. This is stated in the Nitrates Directive, a European directive that regulates nitrogen in agriculture to prevent water pollution. Verloop explains: “Cows mainly eat grass, which is high in proteins and produces a great deal of milk, but if the protein content is too high, cows start producing unnecessarily high concentrations of nitrogen in manure. By feeding the dairy cattle with a specific amount of protein, dairy farmers reduce the amount of nitrogen in manure and thus the nitrogen emissions of their cows, without having to reduce the volume of milk.” Methane emissions from cows can also be limited by controlling specific feed materials in the ration mixture. This, however, is a rather expensive approach, which is sometimes perceived by livestock farmers as being too artificial and therefore not suitable for every farm.Lower protein content“By mowing the grass in a certain way and at a specific time, the protein content is reduced, although this can be at the expense of the energy value.” That is why, aside from grass, dairy farmers additionally give cows maize, which contains less protein, or other types of feed concentrates with a lower protein content and more energy. “In the meantime, the optimum amount of protein that cows should get is quite well known”, says Verloop, “but in practice it appears to be difficult to do that properly.” To help farmers with this, WUR developed the “KringloopWijzer”, which gives dairy farmers an insight into the environmental and climate performance of their dairy farms. These include emissions of nitrogen, ammonia and phosphate, which they can take into account. In the meanwhile, the “KringloopWijzer” has become the standard in the dairy sector and is used to calculate and reflect business performance. For example, the sustainability label “On the way to PlanetProof” is in line with this.Herbal-rich grasslandVerloop and his colleagues are studying other “opportunities” for dairy farming to work towards fewer emissions, a more sustainable environment and social aspirations. This includes, for example, supporting biodiversity. On some farms there are opportunities to cultivate more herbal-rich grassland. There is a lot of experimentation with flower strips and hedgerows and collaborations with nature organisations. The impact on biodiversity is key, but it is also important to look for ways to make it viable, for which allowances are useful. Carbon capture in the soil has also been suggested to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. “Plants extract carbon dioxide from the air and those parts of plants can be preserved in the soil as organic substance”, Verloop explains. He and his colleagues calculated the outcome of this solution; it seems possible to partially compensate for the emissions. In addition, organic substances in the soil contribute to soil fertility. So there is rather a lot of willingness and interest to look at this in practice.CycleThe puzzle is not entirely complete, but thanks to the insights gained in this research project, we have succeeded in reducing the amount of nitrate in the groundwater, and so too the emission of ammonia into the air. Farmers have also managed to make better use of nitrogen and phosphate in animal manure by recovering them through harvested crops. The circulation of these substances from feed to manure, to soil, to plants and back to feed has thus become a more closed circle. There are continuously fewer losses to the environment, and that is the cycle which is the subject of so much debate nowadays. Koos Verloop: “A unique aspect of this project is that farmers, public authorities, advisers and researchers work together constructively to find concrete solutions, to not only improve the situation for the environment but also for dairy farmers. And in doing so, we bring together the pieces of the puzzle.”More recognitionIt is also in the public interest to develop an approach that will enable dairy farmers to produce in an environmentally-friendly manner in a practical way. One of the development aspects is that it is still difficult for entrepreneurs to make their business performance visible with less environmental pressure. To this end, the “KringloopWijzer” is a powerful tool, which in principle, offers opportunities for public authorities and dairy farms to steer towards goals without imposing the “how”. It is not coincidental that the Cows & Opportunities concept forms the basis for the “KringloopWijzer”. However, the inclusion of this tool in government control could be much better. Collaboration between research, public authorities and the sector is also very important here.Problem: the government wants to implement policies that allow dairy farmers to achieve integrated environmental goals in the areas of climate, biodiversity and circular agriculture while maintaining income. It is quite difficult for dairy farmers to meet all the requirements while remaining economically viable.TO2 Solution: Cows & Opportunities helps dairy farmers with practical know-how and effective solutions to meet the environmental requirements. It provides entrepreneurs with an insight into how different, and sometimes counteracting measures can best be applied at their specific dairy farm, so that emissions of methane and ammonia, and so too the leaching of nitrate, are as low as possible.Impact: one of the solutions is to compose the rationing mixture for cows in such a way that emissions of ammonia and methane are reduced. Putting the cattle out to pasture more frequently also helps. The trick here is to undertake this in such a way that the amount of nitrate leaching into the groundwater is confined for business operations on sand. This often means that a dairy farmer must manage his livestock, rationing mixtures, and crops in such a way, that commodities supplied to the dairy farm (such as feed and fertilizers) are efficiently converted into products, without significant losses. This allows livestock farmers to save on their commodities and produce with fewer losses to the environment.Who: Wageningen University & Research.Duration: the programme has already existed for 25 years over various research periods.Follow-up: in the coming period, researchers want to focus on solutions for loss of the derogation, focusing on the goal, and applicability in policy and regulation.
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