When carbon declines, dairy consumption will rise

Increasing dairy consumption in the future will hinge largely on the sector’s ability to reach carbon neutrality and maintain consumer trust in production methods. This was the opinion of speakers at the recent virtual Alltech ONE Ideas Conference.

Dr Torsten Hemme, CEO of the International Farm Comparison Network, said the dairy industry could see consumption of its products increase 50% by 2025.

“But this is only possible if we move to carbon neutrality. The whole dairy sector needs the trust of the consumer, both in terms of what is in the milk they drink and what effect its production has on the environment.”

He said although many people believed milk alternatives were taking market share away from dairy, this was not what his projections showed.

“People underestimate milk consumption, because, while liquid milk intake is decreasing, cheese and butter consumption is increasing and outperforming the loss on the liquid milk side. Currently, statistics show that, globally, people consume on average 300ml of milk and eat 30g of cheese a day.

“We have more than seven billion consumers of our product. Therein lies many opportunities.”

However, Hemme noted that these opportunities could be harnessed only if farming systems were more efficient and traceable.

“The milk price outlook for the next year shows that prices are rising, but it’s still not a great [profit] margin for farmers. They can make a living, but it isn’t sufficient to invest in bringing the dairy industry to carbon neutrality.”

Research conducted by Dr Saheed Salami, research fellow in the solutions deployment team at Alltech, found that greater feed efficiencies could be the solution for dairy farmers.

“Increasing the digestibility of feed and maximising nutritional solutions will play a very big role in achieving the trifecta of higher production and profit, and lower carbon emissions.

“Producers want to know if they can reduce their carbon footprint while increasing production and profitability. Profit needs to go hand in hand with reducing emissions.”

Salami’s study found that by increasing milk production through the boosting of feed intake by 1kg/cow/day, the carbon footprint could be reduced by 3%.

“If farmers improve their feed efficiency and therefore their milk output, they would effectively need fewer cows to produce the same amount of milk. This means they’d save money, and lower their carbon footprint.” – Lindi Botha

BY INCREASING MILK PRODUCTION, THE CARBON FOOTPRINT COULD BE REDUCED