Diversey Agriculture and Promar International, an agricultural and sustainability consultancy firm, have recently published their ‘Achieving sustainable and efficiency improvement goals on dairy farms’ report that outlines some of the best practices that were seen in entries to the #WeAreDairyAward.
The Award celebrates and publicises the positive improvements and actions being made by dairy farms globally, in a bid to reduce dairy farming’s carbon footprint. It was the Suffolk-based Fen Farm, a third-generation family farm that milks 300 Montbeliarde cows, that was crowned the Award’s winner. With the judging panel saying that they were particularly impressed with Fen Farm’s ingenuity and thorough research into each of their sustainability projects, as well as their aim for complete self-sufficiency.
The Diversey Agriculture report focusses on the processes that Award finalists put in place on their own farms, to improve energy efficiency, such as installing energy-efficient LED lighting, and assesses how these can be adopted by others in the dairy farming community.
Alison Cox, Diversey Agriculture global application specialist and Award judge, said: “Energy bills are a big concern for households and businesses across the UK, and this includes the farming industry, where water heating for parlour washing costs the industry up to £3 million per year in temperature loss alone.
“We are currently advising dairy farmers to look at all areas in which they can be more sustainable and efficient with their inputs on-farm, including energy use, not only from an environmental point of view, but also when it comes to cost-saving.
“We hope this report will demonstrate there are efficiencies to be made in many places, and that dairy farmers across the globe are already making extraordinary progress that others can learn from. Most could be easily adopted by other dairy farm businesses, and we hope the examples will serve as inspiration to others,” she concluded.
To read the full report, visit: https://bit.ly/WeAreDairyReport.