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VikingNews Global 2-2019
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dairy
farming in focus arla accelerating the ?green? transition at our most recent vikingacademy, which is a forum where we meet our global distributors, poul bank pettersson, director, regional manager and member relations denmark from arla foods, explained how the company is working with their members to implement a plan to reduce the carbon
footprint of milk production. t oday, arla pays according to fat and protein in the milk, but in the future, it will put extra value on milk produced on a farm that is more sustainable. consumer demands will focus far more on climate
issues in the future. young people, far removed from dairy business, will drive this focus. arla food has identified three main areas where they will focus on accelerating what they call the ?green transi- tion? towards 2050. aligned with the climate goals of car - bon net zero by 2050 agreed at the united nations, these three areas are: better climate: carbon net zero, clean air and water: nitrogen and phosphorus cycles in balance, and more nature, i.e. greater biodiversity and access to nature. ?we plan to visit all our dairy farmers and explain how they can work more efficiently. we are going to measure the carbon footprint of every farm in 2020, after which we will know exactly where each of our 11,000 owners are in terms of carbon footprint at herd level. this is the first step for us and will give us data on where we are regarding climate challenges and implementing our green transition towards 2050,? says poul bank petterson. milk production is an important contributor to green- house gases. cows produce methane gas and each kilo of methane gas corresponds to 28 kg of co2, according to scientific calculations. greenhouse gas emissions at farm level come from enteric fermentation, manure handling and storage, feed production, fuel and electricity etc. however, the industry also intends to offset such emissions with carbon sequestration. ?our long-term aim is to implement the sustainability compass,? petersson said while explaining that in addition to this focus on climate, other factors such as animal welfare, the responsible use of antibiotics, people, air, water and nature will also play a crucial role in this strategy. ?dairy farmers are already doing all they can to cope with climate new challenges, but there is room to improve in term of more efficient practices in the dairy industry,? he says. vikinggenetics represented at the climate change summit 2019 a t the 2019 climate change summit in new york, professor niels peter nørring, climate director of sustainability, the environment & eu, danish agriculture & food council presented a plan on how denmark is strategically preparing its path to becoming climate-neutral by 2050. vikinggenetics plays a major role in this plan. contribution to the carbon footprint on farm greenhouse gas emissions at farm level (incl. input to farm) climate-neutral 2050 agriculture, forestry and other land use account for ?? % of global greenhouse gas emissions. the livestock sector is a signifi- cant contributor to global human-induced emissions. fao projects that meat con- sumption will increase globally towards ????. for that reason, it is imperative to reduce emissions in the livestock sector. this should happen through innovations, new technologies, genetic solutions and on-farm implementation of knowledge. breeding and genetics producing more with less is a guiding star for danish agriculture on the road to an even more sustainable production with a lower carbon foot print. one way of ensur- ing this is through breeding and genetics. the artificial insemination company, vikinggenetics, is owned by ??,??? beef and dairy farmers in denmark, sweden and finland. vikinggenetics are global leaders in providing genetics to improve cattle breeding through healthy, fertile, and high producing cows. new solutions for lower methane emissions new development programs of viking- genetics are at the forefront of future sustainable dairy farming. new research and development areas include: ? a saved feed index to breed dairy cows that produce the same amount of milk from less feed ? breeding of climate-friendly cows to reduce methane emission ? developing a ?d camera system that can measure the feed intake of each cow ? an index for reducing methane emission. breeding towards lower carbon foot print meat consumption will increase towards 2050 12 vikingnews | november 2019
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