Bramblings: Of dairy farms and methane

By BECKY NELSON
By Becky Nelson

Last weekend we traveled to a large dairy farm in Vermont to buy a piece of used equipment for our farming operation. This farm was a wonder to behold. The farm is family-owned and operated with some 20 or 30 employees. One of the owners chatted with us for quite a spell as we were negotiating and told my son they milk 1,700 cows with about 1,400 replacement heifers coming along.

That’s a big herd.

When we arrived, the veterinarian was just leaving. The owner said they keep the vet busy with all that many animals to keep them healthy, thriving and productive. As we chatted, a feed truck went through the barns laying down feed in front of the cattle, some of whom had their fill and were loafing around or scratching their heads on an automatic head scratcher for their comfort, some bellied up to the manger for a meal. Other workers were removing manure from the barns and putting it into the “pit” where it remains until spread back on the soil as fertilizer for feed production. It was quite the operation.

There has been much work done in the dairy industry to make it more streamlined and cost effective as milk prices have remained low. Lots of small dairies have folded up or owners have retired in recent years, seemingly leaving only the larger dairies on the landscape. It is a hard reality that lots of farms are lost, and it is an industry that is always under attack so it seems. Prices for milk plummeted and remained at levels below the cost of production for a long, long time, resulting in many of the dairy farm closures. An aging population of owners is resulting in other closures as folks retire and no one waits in the wings to take over the hard life of dairy farming.

Animal rights groups have been nipping at the heels of dairies and beef ranches for several decades now, and though some concerns were valid and herd health and living conditions have improved, some of their “attacks” seem unfounded. Just because a cow is kept in a shelter for most of its adult life does not mean it is mistreated. The cattle we viewed were treated like queens in excellent clean condition with plenty of fresh air, clean living quarters and feed to keep them happy.

Farmers livelihoods depend on the health and productivity of their land and animals, and it would be counterproductive to mistreat or neglect either the land or the animals that account for your paycheck. The farm we visited even had a sign that they are 100% solar-powered, too, so we were impressed at their land stewardship.

Dairies are again under scrutiny for methane emissions, however. Some environmental activist groups are now urging the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate farms with more than 500 cattle for methane emissions as these emissions may exacerbate the greenhouse effect may be lending to global warming. The EPA recently gutted an Obama term rule that held companies accountable for methane release levels in manufacturing, so a whole new set of rules would need to be implemented before cows are regulated.

Methane is created by the breakdown of vegetative matter where oxygen is not present, like the guts of cows and humans and everything that eats vegetables, and also under ground in landfills, naturally in mudflats, swamps and wetlands and in ancient decomposition sites like coals mines and gas and oil deposits. Much work is now underway to try to develop better technologies to capture methane as a fuel source and for ways to decrease methane production in human activity.

According to the EPA website, “China, the United States, Russia, India, Brazil, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Mexico are estimated to be responsible for nearly half of all anthropogenic methane emissions. The major methane emission sources for these countries vary greatly. For example, a key source of methane emissions in China is coal production, whereas Russia emits most of its methane from natural gas and oil systems. The largest sources of methane emissions from human activity in the United States are oil and gas systems, livestock enteric fermentation, and landfills.”

Researchers have now found that certain seaweed added to cattle feed reduces the amount of methane produced in their digestive systems by 60%. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this matter added to cattle feed on a regular basis or as a supplement to grass-fed beef production in the very near future. I am hoping innovations like this are implemented long before “regulation” of cattle is necessary. The more the regulatory burden on farmers, the less likely they are to continue farming in an already hard vocation, especially the little guys and gals.

Becky Nelson is co-owner of Beaver Pond Farm in Newport, New Hampshire. [email protected].