Jump into the future: Dairy farming 2050
While the dairy sector has made significant strides in terms of using antibiotics more responsibly and implementing technology to monitor animal behaviour and health, more needs to be done to ensure sustainable and profitable production in the years to come. In a short course, held at the National Mastitis Council meeting in Ghent, Belgium in August 2024, five speakers offered insight into the challenges and opportunities the sector faces.
Introduction
While the dairy sector has made significant strides in terms of using antibiotics more responsibly and implementing technology to monitor animal behaviour and health, more needs to be done to ensure sustainable and profitable production in the years to come. In a short course, held at the National Mastitis Council meeting in Ghent, Belgium in August 2024, five speakers offered insight into the challenges and opportunities the sector faces. They also discussed what they think needs to be done to ensure dairy farming remains both profitable and sustainable into 2050. The short course was co-hosted by Beluga Animal Health and Royal GD and moderated by Sarne De Vliegher, professor at Ghent University and partner at MEX.
In his opening address, Dr. De Vliegher raised several important questions, setting the stage for the morning of talks. Is it possible to combine exceptional animal health and welfare with increased productivity? If so, can it be done while limiting antibiotic use and shrinking the sector’s carbon footprint? And what role will technology and innovation, nutrition and artificial intelligence (AI) play in making this happen?
Rinse Boersma, founder and partner at Beluga Animal Health, kicked off the session with an explanation of the three emissions most detrimental to the planet: carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) and comparing to Global Warming Potential 100 (GWP100) model to the Global Warming Potential (GWP) model.
GWP100 is the internationally accepted standard for measuring greenhouse gas emissions. It is used by most countries for their emissions accounting, as agreed at the United Nations level. Under GWP100, methane is considered 27–30 times more harmful than carbon dioxide, and N2O is considered 300 times more harmful. However, methane has a short half-life and stays in the atmosphere for approximately 10 years, while N2O remains for 100 years, and CO2 for 1,000 years.
Boersma pointed out the limitations of using the GWP100 model for making decisions, as the model does not differentiate between non-fossil (enteric) methane and fossil methane. The latter, he said, remains in the atmosphere for much longer than the former.
Scientists agree and responded by creating the GWP model that calculates for short-lived and long-lived methane.
| Gas | GWP100 factor | Lifespan |
| Carbon dioxide (CO2) | 1 | Thousands of years |
| Nitrous oxide (N2O) | 273 | About 110 years |
| Methane (CH4) | Fossil: 29.8 Non-fossil: 27 | About 12 years |
“The conclusion is, if you take standard number one, dairy farm always will be a net contributor,” Boersma said. “And if you take standard number two with decreasing emissions, dairy farming can contribute to a net cooling effect.”
Boersma believes dairy farming could actually contribute to net cooling if certain mitigation strategies are implemented. Reduction schemes include improved manure management, perennial grassland restoration and green energy production. In order to achieve net-zero emissions, however, Boersma stressed that farmers would need to make significant investments.
Optimising nutrition
During her talk, Dr. Kelly Nichols, assistant professor at UC Davis, California, discussed the role of nutrition in reducing methane and nitrogen emissions in dairy farming.
“Feed is going to be a major determinant of what we consider waste or emissions,” she said. “Be that energy loss through methane, the greenhouse gas, or what comes out under the tail of the cow as manure and nitrogen.”
Nichols discussed the potential of feed additives such as 3-NOP and asparagopsis, a red seaweed. Both 3-NOP and asparagopsis block the pathways that leads to the hydrogenation of carbon dioxide with hydrogen to form methane by blocking parts of this enzymatic pathway.
Asparagopsis presents a number of challenges. It is highly variable, which leads to storage issues. Furthermore, while asparagopsis contains high levels of bromoform, the component that blocks methane production, it also contains other compounds that have not been well characterised, Nichols pointed out.
During her presentation, Nichols also highlighted a series of studies, including one that revealed that dairy cattle that consume seaweed show a fairly consistent decrease in dry matter intake. More studies need to be done to find the ideal dosage – one that does not impact feed intake and, therefore, milk production.
Nichols also provided a meta-analysis of 14 individual 3-NOP studies, all of which were published since 2014. Across the board, the studies found 3-NOP consistently reduces methane emissions by at least 30%. In some cases, reductions were even higher. Total reduction, however, is greatly impacted by dietary parameters, including neutral detergent fibre (NDF) content, fat and starch content, as well as the 3-NOP dose itself. Pointing to these results, Nichols emphasized the need for long-term studies on the efficacy of the additives, as well as their impact on animal health.
To improve nitrogen efficiency, she suggested producers decrease crude protein content in cattle diets and optimize amino acid profiles. Finally, she stressed the importance of considering public acceptance on the use of additives, as well as the need for collaboration between animal health researchers and nutritionists to address sustainability challenges.
Public perception and the license to operate
Marina von Keyserlingk, a professor of animal welfare at the University of British Columbia and director of the National Farm Animal Health and Welfare Council of Canada, spoke on the challenging topic of animal welfare and public perception of livestock production. Her presentation focused on the dairy sector.
As Dr. Keyserling points out, the urban-rural divide continues to grow, and that divide is part of what shapes public perception. If producers want to continue to earn their ‘license to operate’, Keyserlingk said, the public will need to agree with what they are doing on-farm and how they are doing it. Key concerns for consumers include: tail docking, calving induction, pain mitigation, lameness, cow-calf separation, keeping cows indoors versus on pasture, and transport regulations.
Finally, Keyserlingk highlighted the need for transformational change and the integration of social sciences to understand and address barriers to best practices.
“Science plays an important role in helping guide policy, but science can only tell us what the options are,” she said. “It cannot tell us what we ought to do. That, we get from the societal values.”
Integrating technology on dairy farms
During her presentation, Ilka Klaas, Dairy Development Director at DeLaval, said future-proofing dairy necessitates the integration of three key factors: technology, sustainability and animal welfare. She said artificial intelligence could be used to enhance decision-making, and expressed the need for consistent innovation.
At DeLaval, the topic of sensor-based management is an important area for precision dairy farming. The company’s app, Disease Risk, helps to identify sick milking cows through the collection of data from DeLaval sensors, which are combined into one prediction that gives producers insight into the condition of their herd. Disease Risk has the ability to predict important diseases, including mastitis and ketosis. Its use of a proprietary AI model, DeepBlue, allows for continuous learning and quicker anticipation, said Dr. Klaas.
Disease Risk is a key component of the company’s main goals – to make milk production more efficient and sustainable. In order to attain this goal, though, Klaas asserted the need for better connectivity and further data sharing.
Putting it all together
Dr. Ynte Schukken, CEO at Royal GD, finished the NMC short course by summarising and reiterating some of the day’s key takeaways. Like his colleagues, Schukken underscored the need for innovation, but also impressed the need for financial compensation for environmental practices.
Dr. Schukken presented data that revealed the trade-offs between health, milk production and environmental impact, advocating for a balanced approach that integrates scientific achievements and practical management. He doesn’t believe it’s going to happen overnight, and certainly, it won’t happen if everyone goes it on their own.
“We’ve done an enormous job in antibiotic use reduction, but in other areas we still have challenges,” Schukken said. “Step by step, we will get to the future, and we will be able to overcome a lot of these challenges.”
