Helping to provide dairy industry solutions for food security and the environment, the U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center scientists cover everything from the soil, to the forage, through the animal, and then in the manure. Dennis Hancock, Dairy Forage Research Center Director, says much of what they’re working on today is on alfalfa.
“A main focus lately is on minimizing the amount of methane that’s coming out from the dairy industry,” says Hancock. “There is great value in utilizing alfalfa in a dairy ration as it helps with the minimization of that.”
Another research area the center is working on is the environmental state and impact of the dairy industry. They are looking at nutrient loss, pathogens, and distinguishing what may be in well water from the dairy industry versus septic systems. Hancock says that they are finding interesting results that show the dairy industry isn’t quite the culprit that some make it out to be.
“We are excited to expand on this research by replacing our old dairy and building a new era of the dairy industry,” explains Hancock. “We expect the 95% design documents coming in the next few weeks and hope to be able to advertise that for bids this summer.”
With the new dairy comes new research opportunities such as robotic milking systems. “This is the first United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to be able to look at robotic milking, so we are very excited,” adds Hancock.
There will also be environmental chambers where they’ll be able to measure methane and ammonia emissions and other things in terms of greenhouse gasses and environmental impact. Additionally, the new center allows for more research in heifer development.
Hancock adds, “We hope that it can be more of a showcase for new practices and new opportunities within the dairy industry. There we will have a larger conference room that we will be able to open up for trainings and we hope to be able to do some demonstrations there locally.”
Some of the biggest challenges he sees coming that they are working hard to mitigate is on the environmental front. One major area is with nitrates, especially in the Mississippi River watershed. They have also done a lot of work with manure application techniques to try and lessen the environmental footprint of the dairy industry.
“We have a great team and we hope that folks will check us out on the website, take a look at some of the research that we have done, and some of the research projects that we’re working on now as well,” says Hancock.
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