DAIRY NEWS – Dairy farmers are regularly updating management practices to improve animal care and be more efficient, productive and profitable. Many of those new management practices and investments in equipment or technologies also make a dairy operation more sustainable.
The Carbon, Crops + Cows program, presented by Professional Dairy Producers® (PDP) provides dairy producers with a field-day opportunity to understand how sustainability scores and measurement tools are used in the dairy industry. The program will be held at two locations: Tuesday, October 14 at Ruedinger Farms Inc in Van Dyne, Wis.; and Wednesday, October 15 at Maple Ridge Dairy in Stratford, Wis.
Experts facilitating the program include Carson Dugger, lead agronomist at Eocene Environmental Group, and Sage Saffran, manager of sustainability initiatives at National Milk Producers Federation. Each field day runs from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., with lunch and program materials provided. Participants will tour the host farm and hear how the host producers used the information from their sustainability reports to make changes on their operation.
Carbon, Crops + Cows will also highlight opportunities through PDP’s Your Farm-Your Footprint™ initiative, a farmer-led project which empowers dairy farmers to know and understand their environmental footprint. Offering solutions to shape the future of their farm, Your Farm-Your Footprint also provides an unbiased, data-protected approach and includes a comprehensive sustainability assessment, customized farm action plan, a peer-learning community and financial assistance.
During the program, Dugger and Saffran will lead interactive sessions for participants to:
- Use the FARM-ES portal to test different on-farm practices to see how they could impact a dairy business
- Review sample reports from three tools – FARM-ES, Comet and Cool Farm Tool – to see how they work, what data they require and how using them can help a dairy farm exceed sustainability standards
- Review examples of SCIP (Sustainability Continuous Improvement Plan) reports that are generated as part of the PDP Your Farm–Your Footprint program to confidentially provide producers with ideas for improvement on their farm
Each session will feature a dairy producer who has participated in the Your Farm–Your Footprint initiative to share their experience with submitting information and reporting. They’ll share how data analysis has helped them innovate, ask the right questions and make impactful changes on their farm. Jake Hoewisch, owner of Homestead Dairy LLC and H&S Tasty Acres LLC, will share his insights in the October 14 session, and attendees will hear from David Trimner, co-owner of Miltrim Farms, during the October 15 session.
“Now is the time to get a baseline measurement of your farm’s sustainability so you know how future investments and decisions will impact your bottom line and your sustainability scores,” said Brady Weiland, Columbus, Wis., dairy producer and PDP board treasurer. “When dairy producers understand their score, how it’s measured and how they can improve it, they’re in a much better position to take advantage of market potential and funding opportunities for improvements.”
To learn more and register for the program, visit www.pdpw.org or contact PDP at 800-947-7379. Carbon, Crops + Cows is accredited for up to 5.5 Dairy AdvanCE continuing education credits. Follow along digitally in advance of and during the event by following PDP on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and X.
Professional Dairy Producers (PDP) is the nation’s largest dairy producer-led organization of its kind, focusing on producer professionalism, stakeholder engagement and unified outreach to share ideas, solutions, resources and experiences that help dairy producers succeed.”
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