Sustainability isn’t just environmental
As companies take strides toward boosting their sustainability efforts, farmers are left with the responsibility of making the changes to their businesses.
W.D. Hoard believed that to produce high-quality dairy products, farmers had to invest in keeping their soil and animals happy and healthy.
Today, dairy farmers see to this by continuously researching and implementing a variety of environmentally friendly operational innovations.
Take feed additives, for one. The practice of including nutritional supplements in cows’ meals is a long-adopted practice. Guernseys at the Hoard’s Dairyman Farm are fed a total mixed ration (TMR) of corn silage, haylage, ground corn, protein mix, whey, vitamins, and minerals.
Lately, research has been surfacing about the possible benefits of adding a particular type of seaweed to cows’ rations. Asparagopsis may help reduce methane that is emitted during the digestive process of cattle, according to a study published in the Journal of Cleaner Production.
However, as Amy Bentley writes in an article published in Hoard’s Dairyman, the science behind seaweed additives is not absolute. In terms of its relevance to reducing methane emissions, 65% of dairy nutritionists at the 2022 and 2023 Cornell Nutrition Conferences in Syracuse, N.Y., believe it to be at least somewhat legitimate — a decent, while not assured, statistic.
Regardless, no amount of research or professional opinion for or against any given finding accounts for the actual groundwork of applying changes on a farm. That responsibility falls to the farmer, and farmers rely on the consistent output of their operation to continue running their business. If adaptation costs supersede daily undertakings, implementing the practice will not be financially sustainable for the farm.
“The risk of making big mistakes and losing a lot of money with some major changes or new types of machinery or innovative fertilizers and feed additives out of a knowledge-lack is very high,” said dairy farmer Florian Stummler in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.
“It also takes more steps and time to prepare the mixed ration with various additives,” Stummler continued, “as well as to plan the mating of the cows, which follows different, more detailed breeding objectives. And almost everywhere, the documentation effort has been increased or even been added to.”
The dialogue surrounding dairy’s ecological footprint is not solely about problem-solving, then. It is about meeting farmers where they’re at and understanding that truly sustainable dairying requires an approach that considers business, livelihood, and generation as much as it does climate and animal.
Mars and other companies have made a commitment to compensate their dairy farmers in alignment with the changes they are making, thus providing financial support for new and challenging undertakings. With continued implementation of programs like this, efforts to make the industry more sustainable will see greater success.
Our own Hoard’s Dairyman Farm Creamery cheese embodies W.D. Hoard’s commitment to well-rounded agriculture. Indulge rest-assured of the process by which it came to be.