We work alongside the innovation center for U.S. Dairy and other partners to address important topics needed for sustainable dairy, including improving soil health and water quality.
One initiative we’re supporting is a U.S. dairy industry research project designed to examine how building soil health can reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, enhance water quality, and enable new economic benefits for farmers. We made a multi-year financial commitment to support the Dairy Soil & Water Regeneration (DSWR) project, a six-year research initiative across five major dairy regions. The initiative is supported by a $10 million grant from the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research.
The DSWR project is designed to provide measurement-based assessments of dairy’s GHG footprint for feed production. One key component of this project will support large plot and field scale studies to evaluate the effects of reducing tillage, adding cover crops, and new manure-based products on soil carbon sequestration, soil health, environmental outcomes, and more.