Breeding and genetic improvement could help the dairy industry boost its sustainability credentials to meet market expectations, now, and into the future.
That’s what Bega Cheese executive chairman Barry Irvin will tell Herd’23 delegates in Bendigo in March.
“Solutions to debates around emissions and environmental footprints will be multifaceted and one solution will be having a very efficient converter of low value inputs, such as grass and grain, into high value products like milk,” he said.
“That’s where genetics plays an important role.”
As head of one of Australia’s largest dairy and food companies and with a long family history of dairy farming in the Bega Valley, Mr Irvin will share his unique insights about consumer expectations of sustainability in the dairy supply chain and what this could mean for dairy farmers.
Sustainability will be a key theme for the biennial conference off the back of the release of DataGene’s Sustainability Index in August 2022.
The Sustainability Index is a tool to help dairy farmers breed cows with reduced emissions intensity.
Mr Irvin will explain to the Herd’23 audience that tackling sustainability challenges such as methane emissions will be as important for the future on-farm as it will be for growing and maintaining product markets.
But will a focus on sustainability deliver a premium for dairy farmers?
“Potentially,” Mr Irvin said.
“But if we look at the past, even if a premium is realised in the short term, it then becomes an expectation to participate in the market.”
This eye to the future and a desire to ensure the sustainability of dairy and other agricultural industries in the NSW Bega Valley is why Mr Irvin and Bega Cheese have led the establishment of the Regional Circularity Co-operative.
“Circulatory” at its essence is about using a resource more than once to reduce waste.
One example, yet to begin, is the investigation of growing the methane-reducing asparagopsis seaweed in the ponds of wastewater from cheese production at Bega Cheese.
Mr Irvin said the concept would guarantee an additional use for the salty water.
Examples of “circulatory” already in action include the pairing of a free-range chicken and dairy farmer.
This arrangement enabled the chicken farmer to expand their enterprise, while the dairy farmer received fertiliser.
Hear more about Mr Irvin and Bega Cheese’s quest to make the Bega Valley the most “circular” region in the world at Herd’23 in Bendigo on March 15 and 16.
For more information, visit: https://www.ivvy.com.au/event/Herd23/home.html
Herd conferences are a joint initiative between DataGene, Dairy Australia, Holstein Australia and the National Herd Improvement Association.