Research for the Dairy Net Zero Initiative

Tim Hammerich

News Reporter

The dairy industry nationwide has embraced the Net Zero Initiative to be carbon neutral across the industry by 2050 while contributing to water conservation and water quality. Foundational research and demonstration for that initiative is happening in California, where farm Advisor Nick Clark and others are looking at the effects feed production and dairy manure management will have on meeting these goals.

Clark… “The geographical distribution of dairies across the state, they're largely concentrated in the Southern San Joaquin Valley. And I think that this project will help put forward information that will show that there are adoptable solutions to taking a lot of those manure nutrients that we have concentrated on dairies in the Southern San Joaquin Valley and turn them into a form where it's economically viable to distribute them to other parts of the state where they can be utilized and help us overcome a lot of the potential future issues with groundwater quality and greenhouse gas emissions.”

Clark says the six year project is just getting going as he is lining up research sites and collecting data.

Clark… “We'll be working with a dairy producer in the Southern San Joaquin Valley and an almond producer in the Northern San Joaquin Valley. Sort of setting up that archetype of what we believe the system will look like.”

This work is funded by the Foundation for Food and Ag Research and other contributing partners from the dairy industry.