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Ellie tackles a big topic in this presentation and her take on dairy farming and climate change is sure to inspire many a discussion.
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Climate Change
Who cares
CLIMATE
CHANGE
Image: www.askehbl.wordpress.com
PENNY DOES !!!!
and there are lots of
people who just don’t
have a clue ?????
Image www.patdollard.com
WELL WE THINK THE WHOLE
DEBATE IS JUST A HUGE WASTE
OF ENERGY
Image: www.pulse80.blogspot.com
What we do know is
less than 7%
of Australia
is suitable
for food production
Source: www.dfat.gov.au/facts/env_glance
Image: www.waste2energynow.com
And the
farmers
producing this
food are finding
the resources to
do so increasingly
scarcer
&
more
expensive.
So what are Australian dairy
farmers doing about this
Image : www.eecs.oregonstate.edu
LETS FIND OUT WHAT THE
SMART COWS ARE DOING
We are doing
what every-one
else on the planet
should be doing.
We are using less
resources and
using them
smarter .
We started to
get our act
together a while
back.
http://www.climatechange.gov.au/en/climate-change/emissions.aspx
Okay we need a few facts and
figures before we get started
Source: www.climatechange.gov.au/en/climate-change/emissions.aspx
The scientists say it with pictures
too???
www.climatechange.gov.au/en/climate-change/emissions.aspx
Where do emissions from
grazing industries come from??
Eckard (2008) www.greenhouse.unimelb.edu.au
The less land you need for milk
production the more land you have to
plant trees – and we all know how
important that is!!!!!!
MILKING COWS
IN A WORLD
WHERE
Less IS MORE
So its easy
Milk
less cows
who give
MORE
milk
Lets expand
on this.
It does
require
smart
farmers
too!!!
SMART STRATEGIES
The rule of 3’s
1. Breeding.
2. Feeding.
3. Animal Management.
Okay so we select
for cows who can
turn feed into milk
as efficiently as
possible.
1. BREEDING
Feed Conversion Efficiency (FCE)
So what is FCE?
Simplest way to put it is most cows eat about 20kg DM* per day.
So if she can turn 20kgs of feed into:
• 20 litres of milk - she has an FCE of 1
• 40litres of milk - she has an FCE of 2
So the higher the FCE the more efficient she is
*DM = dry matter i.e. feed with water taken out
2. Feeding
Feed me the best quality,
energy rich feed you can
grow & buy.
Trust me I’m worth it and
I am good for the environment too.
Grow them big and tall
• By feeding your cows to grow big
and tall and enter the milking
herd at two years old you can
reduce their non productive life as
a green house gas emitter.Sounds very
efficient indeed!!!
Lets look at why?
2 small cows vs. 1 BIG COW
So lets look at the maths
• Just like you and me a cow uses some of the food she eats to turn into energy for maintenance ( i.e. walking, breathing, growing etc)
• 1 small cow will use 70 to 80 MJ ( Mega Joules*) just for maintenance
• 1 big cow will use 100 MJ for maintenance
* Joule = measurement of energy
But wait there is more
If 1 small cow only has the capacity to
produce 5000 litres per year and the big cow
can produce 10000 litres per year that
means the big cow uses 60% less energy for
maintenance than 2 little cows to produce
the same amount of milk.
Bit confused ?
Have a look at the
pictures on the next
page.
2 x 80MJ = 160MJ = 10000 litres
1 x 100MJ = 100MJ = 10000 litres
2 SMALL COWS VS. 1 BIG COW 60% MORE ENERGY NEEDED for MAINTENANCE to
PRODUCE SAME AMOUNT OF MILK
SO BIG IS BEAUTIFUL -FEEDING COWS WELL CAN REDCUE
METHANE EMMISIONS BY 30%
www.climatechange.gov.au/en/climate-change/emissions.aspx
3. ANIMAL MANAGEMENT
• Milking 3 x daily increases milk production
by up to 25%
• This means dairy farmers can milk less
cows who produce MORE milk on the
same amount of land
• This means less Green House Gas
emissions per unit of production
WOW
Now that’s
smart!!
• It is well known by breeding cows with
high FCE and milking them 3x daily dairy
farmers can reduce Green House Gas
Emissions by up to 30%
Less
Green House Gases???
Lets look at some
other on farm less
is
MORE
strategies
MORE
SMART STRATEGIES
1.Fertiliser Management.
2.Fertiliser Formulation.
3.Pasture and Soil Management.
How to Make
Less
do
MORE
1. Fertiliser Management
Laughing Gas – not so funny
• Nitrous oxide also known as laughing gas
or happy gas is a major greenhouse gas
and air pollutant.
• Over a 100 year period, it has 298 times
more impact per unit weight than carbon
dioxide.
• Nitrous oxide escapes into the air when
nitrogen fertiliser is used.
Fertiliser – the aim of the
game…
is to keep the nutrients on the pasture and
out of the airways and waterways.
• So its very important to:
measure what goes in and what goes out and
only apply what you need, where you need it and not
when rain is going to bucket down.
Remember Uncle Steve’s Rule
“If you cant measure it,
you cant manage it”
2. Fertiliser Formulations • Like all things driven by need, fertilisers
are being developed with protective
coatings to reduce the amount of Nitrous
Oxide escaping in the atmosphere.
Fertiliser isn't
the only bad guy.
Did you walk to work
today?
3. Pasture & Soil Management
• The key is to grow as, much pasture as you can and this allows a high stocking rate i.e. more cows/ha.
• One of the greatest on-farm challenges is the inefficiencies from wasting grass – a high stocking rate utilises the grass when it is available.
• Using water and nutrient efficient grasses means less fertiliser use and more pasture grown on the moisture shoulders.
• Grow drought tolerant species with potential for rapid recovery after drought.
FOOD MILES ????
• The dairy industry only uses grains
and by-products not fit for human consumption.
• And yes the grain truck may travel 300km but we are actually minimising GHGE as we are producing milk close to where it is consumed.
• After all the milk truck leaves the farm everyday but the grain truck only comes every 6-8 weeks.
SO HOW CLEVER IS THE DAIRY
INDUSTRY??
THE COWS ARE GETTING BIGGER,
PRODUCING MORE MILK FROM
LESS OF THEM
AND THE FOOTSTEPS
ARE
GETTING SMALLER?
Cows are part of the solution
• If there is a problem it is not the cow, but
the way we manage the farm system and
its carbon cycle.
• Dairy farmers have the responsibility to be
good stewards of the land and livestock for
the benefit of the land, the livestock, the
community, and themselves.
So don’t
sweat the
small stuff.
The time is
NOW to get
SMART
CLIMATE CHANGE
OR NOT !!!
We have more people to feed,
& more people to house,
do
MOREwith
Less
TAKE HOME MESSAGE
Follow the cows
Acknowledgements
• This is a CoolCows production by
Ellie Lindsay for the Cream of the Crop Competition
• Ellie would like to acknowledge
– the genii behind the great pictures gleaned from the web for this PowerPoint.
– Dr Richard Eckard Uni of Melbourne - Dairy Greenhouse Gas Abatement Guru www.greenhouse.unimelb.edu.au
Remember!!
It’s so
Cool to
do MORE
with
Less!!!
