Dairy cows contribute a large amount of greenhouse gases to the environment. They are also responsible for the transformation of natural habitation to land for agriculture since the demand for feed crops is increasing. Dairy farming contributes greatly to soil degradation, water pollution, climate change ad so on.
Here are some of the aspects of nature that dairy farming indirectly and directly affects: –
- As it helps increase the emissions of greenhouse gases, dairy farming is to some extent responsible for climate change.
- Downstream habitats take a blow from the airborne emissions of ammonia and it can cause the loss of the diversity of species.
- Excessive amounts of water are necessary to water the cows, feed them and grow their feed, manage manure as well as process products. Other than that, the fertilizer runoff along with manure runoff pollutes water resources.
- In the present situation, the world’s ⅔ agricultural land facilitates maintaining livestock. This affects the natural habitat of our land since ⅓ of it suffers desertification due to deforestation.
- Soil erosion is another effect of dairy operations due to livestock farming. Overgazing of the cattle, cattle hooves impacting the soil, and conversion of forests into areas for growing feed crops and pasture places for the cattle contribute to the loss of organic matter and topsoil.
How Can Farmers Reduce Their Carbon Footprint?
It is only natural that dairy farming, like other farming operations, gradually changes to get the best practices to protect margins and create a bigger impact. When changing farming systems, one measure farmers can take is to reduce their carbon footprint. Here are some examples of practical measures that farmers can undertake to reduce their carbon footprint.
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Improvement of Soil Health By Cutting Emissions
The soil organic matter’s carbon component is SOC or Soil Organic Carbon. If we reduce the amount of soil disturbance then we can reduce the carbon flow from the soil and move towards systems that are lower tillage. Though not suited for every situation, the benefits include lesser soil erosion, advancement of biodiversity and lower establishment costs.
Improving Fertiliser Use To Reduce Emissions
Arable farming systems supply a ton of greenhouse gas emissions from inorganic fertilisers. Farmers can optimize fertiliser applications to reduce the volume necessary for the reduction of yields. Precision farming techniques are useful in this case as they help improve efficiency while reducing wastage.
Animal Performance Improvement
Farmers have to improve overall animal performance if they want to mitigate greenhouse gases in sheep and beef. They can consider feed efficiency, supervise diseases, and keep a close eye on genetics, growth rates and fertility.
Improvement In Handling Manure Storage
The way farmers store and spread animal manure greatly affects the amount of ammonia, nitrous oxide and methane it generates. Farmers can store manure heaps on a sealed base and reduce the losses by covering them with sheets. They can better time the fertiliser application to avoid a surplus of application.
Improvement of Forage Quality and Feeding
The right variety of grass, and timely operations can stimulate intake and boost yields. It reduces the required quantity of bought-in feed. Farmers can switch from a high carbon footprinted feed like soya to an alternative that provides similar protein content.
Improvement In Manure Handling
Applying slurry timely while using spreaders that have low-emission rates (for example injection systems, trailing shoes, etc) can reduce nitrous oxide emissions significantly. Muck and slurry storage systems minimise the losses of ammonia into the environment.
Nutrient Use Improvement
If farmers want to improve yields while reducing the use of fertiliser, they can adopt a good strategy which is selecting and implementing fertilisers and manures in line with the requirements of the crop quantity and quality.
Use of Renewable Energy Production
If on-site electricity consumption is high, then a renewable source of energy is worth considering. Since the advancement of technology, the price of solar energy has also fallen so it is more affordable now.
How Can Farmers Adopt Sustainable Practices?
Farmers who practice sustainability use nitrogen-fixing plants and natural enemies instead of fertilizers and aggressive pesticides. Here are some other methods through which farmers can adopt sustainable practices: –
Crop Rotation
Crop rotation is when you plant various types of crops in a certain sequence. This helps sustain the diversity of the crop while maintaining the soil quality. Thanks to the root system, crop rotation helps minimize compaction. N-fixing plants nourish the soil with nitrogen and reduce soil depletion.
Irrigation Techniques
Crop production needs a huge amount of energy and aquatic resources to use irrigation. Sustainable farming practices make way to optimize excessive consumption through ways like having less-water-consuming plants species
Minimum to Zero Tillage
Farmers can prevent soil loss by implementing no-till or reduced-till practices. One needs to sow exactly into the residue of the crops that have minimal biota and soil disturbance. If you plant seeds immediately after cultivating the soil, the minimum to zero-till method will minimize the operation time, and restrict soil compaction which results in ecological stability.
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IPM or Integrated Pest Management/Pest Control
IPM is more efficient if one can use it in a complex. IPM helps reduce the harmful effects on humans, non-target species and nature in general. Integrated pest management heavily relies on cultural and biological control. Some biological measures farmers can take are destroying aphids using ladybugs-like predators, and eliminating pests and their larvae with poultry.
Other Measures
Other than the above-mentioned methods, there are some methods which are also just as effectively such as Polyculture, mulching, biodynamic and organic farming, intercropping, conservation tillage, agroforestry and many more.
The Bottom Line
Poor management of dairy farming and bad handling of fertilizer and manure produce greenhouse gas emissions that affect our environment greatly. If we do not practice sustainable farming practices for not only dairy products but other agricultural aspects as well, we have to confront greater dangers such as the loss of ecologically significant lands i.e. forests, wetlands and prairies. To achieve a sustainable dairy production marketplace, companies along with farmers and co-ops have to engage actively in this mission.
