P1d – Carbon on NSW dairy farms

Kikuyu grass is a C4 grass adapted to both the tropics and temperate climates. It is fast growing and produces more dry matter of higher quality than most C4 grasses.

Furthermore, as climate change impacts all dairying regions, more dairy farm businesses will find themselves subject to weather conditions suitable for growing Kikuyu. This prospect makes the appeal of understanding and harnessing the value of Kikuyu more appealing and relevant to a greater number of dairy farm businesses into the future.

However, to be sustainable, future dairy systems will need to be C neutral and environmentally friendly. It is imperative to quantify the true environmental impact of intensively managed Kikuyu-based systems including impact on C emissions.

Our aim is to identify and evaluate options for C-neutral dairy production from Kikuyu-based systems

Yani Garcia oversees the Dairy UP project

Our approach and methods

The work includes a review of literature, establishing of base situation and modelling of C-neutral scenarios (Year 1); monitoring C emissions from pasture, C sequestration in the soil, as well as quantifying CH4 and CO2 gases from individual dairy cattle (year 2+). This will be done using the most recent technology including breath analysers for cattle, soil chambers and environmental GHG measuring equipment. Data acquired from soils, pastures and animals will allow us to quantify the real environmental impact of different production systems and management practices with increased accuracy.

GreenFeed breath analysers for cattle emissions (Waghorn et al., 2016; Denninger et al., 2019) and soil chambers and equipment to measure fluxes of GHG in the environment will be used on research station and/or selected participating commercial farms. Measurements from animal and soils will be used to fine tune advanced modelling tools to quantify and more accurately predict, true environmental impact of the different production systems.

Progress

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Project Update (December 2023)

This Dairy UP project will help the NSW Dairy industry to meet the industry’s emissions reduction targets.

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Publication (March 2024)

Dietary concentrate supplementation increases milk production and reduces predicted greenhouse gas emission intensity in pasture-based commercial dairy farms.

Supplements boost profit, reduce GHG

Dairy UP PhD student Mulisa Jaji Dida has recently had an article published in the Journal of Dairy Science, entitled Dietary Concentrate Supplementation Increases Milk Production and Reduces Predicted Greenhouse Gas Emissions Intensity in Pasture-based Commercial Dairy Farms.