Dairy feed manufacturers are trying to reduce the carbon footprint of feed production
It should be no secret that a major push is underway within the animal nutrition industry to develop products, programs and practices that will significantly reduce the CO2eq emissions of livestock. While much progress has been achieved, there is still a long way to go to achieve the objectives that various governmental and consumer groups have established as obtainable targets. One key finding that has emerged from this journey is that it is highly unlikely that any one product, program or practice will, by itself achieve the targeted CO2eq reduction objectives that have been set. Rather, the quest to achieve a significant reduction in livestock based CO2eq emissions will need to be a group endeavor, with several products, programs and practices contributing to a successful outcome. Reports indicate that 27% of the total carbon footprint of a dairy farm are emissions from on-farm supply sources, including emissions from the production of feed supplied to the farm (see Figure 1). Therefore, beyond the need to lower the carbon footprint of the cow is the growing need of premixers and feed compounders to provide their customers with a total CO2eq number for the feed they are selling to their customers.