How is Europe making dairy farming more sustainable?

A new research project involving 28 partners aims to make livestock farming more sustainable. The project, called Pathways, has received €9 million or (DKK 67 million) from the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, Horizon 2020, according to Aarhus University.

Working together will be project partners, local farmers and other stakeholders – this will occur in 16 practice hubs, locally anchored throughout Europe. At these hubs, issues and challenges will be tackled that farms face in their efforts to increase their sustainability. From here, the development of solutions will be compiled and put together in guideline format and standards that can help other farms to get started on a sustainable transition.

Methods and guidelines

“In the project, farmers, researchers and other experts will work together to develop methods and guidelines for how best to develop European livestock farming to make it significantly more sustainable in the future. It’s important for the success of the project that local farmers take ownership of the new methods, so that we can develop common scenarios for how livestock farms can realistically develop in a positive direction,” says Professor Claus Grøn Sørensen from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, who is in charge of the Aarhus University part of the project.

The Danish partners in the project are Danish Crown, Arla, Seges and the Department of Agroecology and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Aarhus University. The project is being coordinated by SLU and it will run for 5 years. The project has a total of 28 partners from 12 countries.

Source and for more info: Aarhus University.