Sustainable lawn mowers

Cutting grass. My son hates it. My other kids are so allergic they can barely walk outside during the growing season. The only reason I would ever do it is for the exercise. But God, infinitely wise, created a perfect lawnmower - the dairy cow. I had the opportunity to visit a farm that practices pasture-based dairying. Pasture farms allow the cows to graze (or "mow") the fields as their primary feed rather than giving them just corn or other silage. The tradeoffs and balances between pasture and traditional methods are interesting. The cost is quite a bit lower in pasture systems. The farm I visited had in input cost of just over $10 per hundred weight (how milk is measured), and is actually making a teeny-tiny profit every day, even in the worst price cycle since the great depression. They also mentioned that if they had a flat tire on one of the farm vehicles, the day's profit would vanish. But the lower cost has allowed them to endure.

On the farm I visited, they were averaging about 40-50 hundred weight volume per cow. This varies with the season, as it does on traditional farms. But traditional dairy farmers get in the neighborhood of 70-80 hundred weight per cow. The only problem is that the costs for traditional farmers range from $12-18 per hundred weight. Today the price farmers are paid for milk is in the $11-12 per hundred weight range, so for the most part, traditional farmers are losing big money.

So on the surface, grazing dairies seem to be a logical choice, yes? What about when you stop to consider that farmers are called on to produce more product with the same amount of resources in order to feed a hungry world? Traditional dairy farmers produce more milk per cow than ever before. If every dairy turned to pasture-based grazing, there would be a severe milk deficit, and prices could raise to the point that dairy products would only be available to the wealthy. The social justice warning meter just went off in my head, how about yours?

Sustainability encompasses more than just evnironmental justice. People are a part of the habitat, too. We need to figure out how to treat the planet and all its inhabitants in a way that respects each one of them.

Electric poo

In the midst of the recession, we hear about generating jobs through investing in green energy. Biofuels have been in the news alot, particularly corn-based fuels. One of the lesser known biofuels with great potential for dairy farmers is something I like to call electric poo.

The process of anaerobic digestion uses microorganisms to break down biodegradable materials in the absence of oxygen. Manure, as most people's nose will tell them, is an abundant biodegradable resource on dairy farms. Left untreated, manure is a nuisance. It smells bad, it looks bad, and it attracts pests. But when manure is put through the anaerobic process, the resulting methane gasses that are produced can be captured and turned into electricity.

There are challeneges for dairy farmers. Methane digesters are expensive, and the economic benefits are difficult to measure. Most farmers who have installed them depend on subsidies to make it possible. And since the technology is still in its infancy, it may be years before the equipment and processes are refined enough to make it a good investment for dairies of all sizes.

Dairies have made significant progress in the last 60 years in reducing their carbon footprint. Making electricity out of poo is another step in the right direction.

Fresh "Country" Air

As a kid, when I took car trips with my family from our suburban neighborhood to see our relatives in the country, we would joke about the fresh "country" air we breathed when we got out at our destination. In our minds, the smell of cow manure was synonymous with our country surroundings. In the future we may not have to make that distinction, as dairy farmers learn how to keep our air smelling sweet and clean.

One of the easiest ways to change the odor of manure's gas is through the diet of the cow. Working with a nutritionist, a farmer can formulate his feed to include grasses such as alfafa which are higher in sugar content. According to Professor Mike Theodorou of the UK's Science Development at the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research in Aberystwyth, "These grasses present a better balance of nutrients to the microbial population in the rumen and are used more efficiently. In doing so, more of the ingested carbon and nitrogen will be converted to meat, milk, hide, and wool." More sugar, less methane. Not a good rule for a car trip, but seems like a good rule for a cow.

Other scientists are studying the use of plant-derived oils as food additives to abate odor. These additives inhibit the production of the volatile fatty acids (VFAs). VFAs are produced as a result of the incomplete degradation of food in the digestion process, and contribute to odors produced by manure. Manure containment facilities have also been targeted for improvement. Cows breeders use genetics to produce less gas. In fact, an entire publication is devoted to the management of manure issues.

So in the future, my granddaughter may not experience "fresh country air." It will just be one of those crazy "When I was your age..." stories from her grammy. And perhaps it is better that way.