Webinar: Sustainable Dairy Farming

With the topic of ‘sustainable dairy farming’ there are many aspects to consider, from dairy cow welfare and health to nutrition. Looking at dairy farming in the bigger picture is certainly important to note while keeping tabs on its impact on the environment. Meanwhile, the latest innovations to help improve sector strategies is more important than ever.

So, what can we do to improve dairy farming strategies like herd performance and feed efficiency and at the same time consider its place when it comes to climate change, emissions and a healthy planet? There are, of course, key ways to make sure that on farm level sustainability issues are addressed while keeping important points like milk production, animal performance and welfare in check.

In this webinar on 9 June at 15.00 CET we will hone in on sustainability in dairy farming and take into account feed efficiency and herd longevity.

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Line-up of speakers and presentations

1. Dr Valentin Nenov DVM, MBA, global ruminant manager at Phileo by Lesaffre. He is responsible for the global ruminant strategy of the company, the development of innovative solutions and building the technical communication. He manages product development and launches in close collaboration with R&D, marketing, and commercial teams.

Presentation topic: Probiotic yeast boosts feed efficiency for more sustainable dairy farming

Sustainable dairy farming is a comprehensive term that can be defined as producing milk in the most efficient way with respect to animal welfare and having minimal impact on the environment while maximising the farmer’s profit. There are many aspects of sustainable dairy farming that we need to focus on and one of them is feed efficiency. High feed efficiency is basically the ability of the animal to retain maximum energy and nutrients from the consumed feed and it is generally related to good welfare with no stress and good overall health. Maximising feed efficiency improves milk production and hence a farmer’s profit, but it also diminishes the negative impact of dairy farming on the environment. Supplementing probiotic yeast Actisaf to dairy cows proves to significantly increase feed effacing and fibre digestion increasing milk production and quality while reducing the carbon footprint.

• Importance of feed efficiency for more sustainable dairy farming in the context of rising grain prices.
• Ruminal health and fibre degradation is the key to better feed efficiency.
• Probiotic yeast may balance the ruminal environment significantly improving NDF degradation and feed efficiency.
• Probiotic yeast helps reduce the carbon footprint from dairy farming through optimising efficacy and performance.

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2. Frederik Gadeyne, product developer within the R&D ruminants team, joined Agrimprove in 2017 after finishing his PhD at Ghent University. There, he worked as a teaching assistant while researching the protection of polyunsaturated fatty acids against ruminal biohydrogenation. Since 2017, he works as a product developer within the R&D ruminants team, doing research on several topics concerning the development of new concepts and products. His focus and passion are functional feed ingredients for ruminants.

Presentation topic: Longevity, the driver toward sustainable dairy farming

• Understanding the impact of culling decisions on sustainability.
• Recognising the main problems to longevity in dairy farming.
• Finding solutions to improve herd longevity.

3. Albert de Vries, Professor at the Department of Animal Sciences, University of Florida.

Presentation topic: 
Role of reproduction and cow replacement in sustainable dairy farming

• Reproduction efficiency and cow replacement rates play an important role in sustainable dairy farming as it relates to greenhouse gas emissions.
• The presentation will quantify the effects of differences in reproduction efficiency and cow replacement rates on greenhouse gas emissions.
• The presentation will also offer suggestions for better decision making related to reproduction and cow replacement.

REGISTER FOR FREE: Sustainable dairy farming webinar