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In this episode of the Maine Farmcast, host Dr. Glenda Pereira sits down with Amber Blodgett to learn about the Ben and Jerry's Low Carbon Dairy Pilot Project. Amber is the Dairy Research & Outreach Specialist for the UVM Extension Northwest Crops and Soils Team. Listeners will learn about different the project, and the specific intervention opportunities to potentially decrease greenhouse gas emissions. You can reach Amber at amber.blodgett@uvm.edu.
University of Maine Cooperative Extension is an equal opportunity institution and provider committed to nondiscrimination. For more information, visit extension.umaine.edu/nondiscrimination.
Creators and Guests
Host
Colt Knight
Colt grew up in a coal mining family in West Virginia where they also operated a small family farm and show horse stable. During academic breaks and between schools, he worked in strip mines across the country. Colt earned his B.S. in Animal Science at the University of Kentucky, M.S. in Animal Science at Angelo State University, and his Ph.D. in Animal Science at the University of Arizona in 2006, 2012, and 2016, respectively. In the fall of 2016, he worked on a postdoc with Dr. Derek Bailey at New Mexico State University. Since 2017, Colt W. Knight works as an Assistant Professor of Extension for the University of Maine where he serves as the State Livestock Specialist. He teaches Introduction to Animal Science (AVS 145) and runs the Maine Grazing Behavior Lab. The core focus of the Grazing Behavior lab revolves around designing and manufacturing livestock tracking collars, engaging in applied grazing behavior research, and assisting other researchers with technology to interpret animal behavior. Dr. Knight’s research is broadly focused on selecting animals uniquely adapted to landscapes and promoting sustainable agriculture. Colt is the current chair for the Society of Range Management Livestock Foraging Behavior Committee, as well as, the North East Region Chair for the National Association of County Agricultural Agent’s Teaching and Educational Technology Committee. He also serves as an Associate Editor for the journal Ecological Processes. Colt is actively engaged in outreach and has delivered over 150 seminars on livestock production since starting his career at the University of Maine.
Host
Glenda Pereira
As the University of Maine Cooperative Extension Dairy Specialist, Dr. Pereira conducts applied research and develops educational programs for dairy and livestock producers across the state of Maine and New England. While the Holstein breed is near and dear to her heart, Dr. Pereira admires the Normande breed and her favorite dairy products are sour cream and ice cream.
What is Maine Farmcast?
The Maine Farmcast features weekly conversations with experts from across the country sharing insights and advice for both new and seasoned farmers running operations of any size. Hosted by three livestock specialists from the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, the show brings you world-class expertise paired with practical advice about how to apply cutting-edge research to improve the efficiency and sustainability of your farming operation.
Welcome to the Maine Farmcast. This is your host, Dr. Glenda Pereira, an assistant professor of Cooperative Extension and an assistant professor of animal science within the University of Maine, as well as the state dairy specialist. And I have a guest today that I've been meaning to bring on the podcast for a long time. So we have with us today Amber Blodgett. Amber is actually a listener of the Farmcast, but Amber is a colleague of mine over in Vermont, and she's gonna tell us a little bit more about herself.
Glenda Pereira:But I'm really excited to have her on because she wears many hats, and one of those is being a farmer as well as being a dairy specialist and forage specialist as well. Amber, welcome to the podcast.
Amber Blodgett:Hey. Thanks. As you mentioned, I am I'm a really huge fan of this podcast. Your team has done a really outstanding job covering such a huge diversity of topic over the past few years, and I look forward to this download every week. So was so pleased to be invited on today.
Amber Blodgett:As you said, my name is Amber Blodgett. I live in Northwestern Vermont. I'm a dairy research specialist with UVM Extension, the Northwest Crops and Soils team. Our office is located in St. Albans, but we work on farms across the state.
Amber Blodgett:I started milking cows when I was 14. And I've been involved in Vermont dairy Vermont dairy industry in a variety of capacities since then. But we're talking decades here. I'm 42 now. So I can say that I have worked in this industry for decades.
Amber Blodgett:But I really dialed in my appreciation for for dairy cattle and developed a real love and passion for these animals and science behind milk production at the University of Vermont as an undergrad. I did the student run dairy program, Cream Cooperative for Real Education Agricultural Management, not really in the early days of the program, but before it became a real pre vet oriented program. And I also completed the Advanced Dairy Management program through Miner Institute. So both of those programs through UVM gave me the hands on and data science aspects of dairy production and some research aspects as well, which really kind of blew my mind on top of the dairy farming that I had already done. And after college, I just I just kind of continued working on farms across Northern And Central Vermont for Vermont Dairy Herd Improvement Association and also for the American Breeders Service.
Amber Blodgett:I just got to see a whole lot of cows across the state and become friends and and really get to know the farmers to make this happen in our state, which was invaluable. I didn't know it at the time. I was just I was just doing a job. I was being in a barn and I knew that I loved bats, but that really kind of helped helped me develop some really valuable relationships. About fifteen years ago, I took a job as a herds person in Northwestern Vermont, milking and managing about a 150 cows, primarily Holsteins, but I had started my own little project herd of of girly disease.
Amber Blodgett:And that, that herd grew in this setting. And I was able to begin a small processing business. So I made cultured butter and bottled buttermilk and cream top milk and did all the marketing and some direct to consumer stuff like farmer's market and such. And that felt really full circle to me. I was I was growing these cows.
Amber Blodgett:I was managing this herd. Was milking them six or seven days a week. And I was taking that product and adding some value to it and getting it into my community. That was that was really it it was That was very Sorry. Go ahead.
Glenda Pereira:No. I think and you mentioned it previously, but but it really supported sort of the role you're in today. Some of those early you know, you mentioned you you didn't know it at the time, but the skills you were developing and everything you were learning, which you on your own were curious about. I I mean, making butter is a fantastic skill to have because who doesn't love butter?
Amber Blodgett:Yes. Everybody's
Glenda Pereira:everybody eats butter. We all want butter. And Guernsey's I know you also had Holstein's, but Guernsey's are a great breed for making all the creams. And in addition, they also have the a two a two protein. I don't know if folks are familiar with that.
Glenda Pereira:But Guernsey milk is basically like butter already. So so it was really supporting your career building to get to the place you're in today as the dairy research specialist.
Amber Blodgett:Yeah. I could not have foreseen it at the time. I thought that I would farm until I died. That was that was where I was at. But as many who have taken this path before me of farming full time and processing full time and marketing and running a business full time, it's it's really challenging to make that a fully sustainable long term thing.
Amber Blodgett:Due to a variety of reasons circumstances outside of my control, I found myself making a cruise ship about three years ago. And I was super, super fortunate to find this spot on the UVM Extension Northwestern crops crops with soils team. As you as you introduced me, the job title they gave me is dairy research specialist.
Glenda Pereira:And when I
Amber Blodgett:spent a lot of time trying to figure out what exactly that means, and it turns out, like you said, it means a whole bunch of things. There's no one word answer to the work I do, which fits me really well. You know? I love that every day is a little bit different. So some of the stuff I do for my team or with my team is develop resources on funding opportunities for dairy producers, plan and facilitate workshops and events across the state.
Amber Blodgett:And also I get to do both on farm research and research on more controlled research trials. And as part of this team, which is so much fun collecting information from farmers and from from trials at our research farms. It's really the work is so diverse and seasonal, and it's always really exciting and fun to do. I enjoy showing up for work every day.
Glenda Pereira:Before you talk more, I want I want you to shout out the field day you guys have every year. So folks might not be familiar with your field day, but they can actually check out in person the research that you and your team are doing every year, every summer.
Amber Blodgett:We just had our field day, our nineteenth annual field day this past July. I think we had around 250 people show up at our research farm called Border View Farm up in Alberg that Roger Rainville's farm. He's a retired dairy farmer, and he has worked with Heather to really develop this piece of land to do all these amazing research trials. And we have everything. Corn variety trials, forage variety trials.
Amber Blodgett:We look at harvest techniques across different treatment. We have some grains, lots of grains trials, and some vegetables. We did some strawberries. There was hemp and flax for fiber production. So the morning of that event is this huge tour of all of these trials, which is just really impressive.
Amber Blodgett:There's a ton of work that goes into making the farm and all of the research plots look nice and clean and they're all labeled. And it's it's really, really impressive. And then we have these breakout sessions in the afternoons where folks can go learn about different aspects of the work that we're doing. Right. And it really brings in a diverse crew of of people and just showcases Yeah.
Amber Blodgett:All the work that's being done in agriculture. So folks
Glenda Pereira:can look forward to that next July. So it's held annually on in July. And we'll Yeah. We'll add to the show notes where you can contact Amber and her team. But if folks haven't attended, it's definitely something to check out, and there's a lot of opportunity to learn.
Amber Blodgett:Lunch is always on point, and there's always free ice cream. So Yeah. It's worth
Glenda Pereira:it. And speaking of ice cream, we're gonna be talking some about one of the projects that you're leading, the Ben and Jerry's Low Carbon Dairy Pilot Project. When you had mentioned before when we when we were just getting our thoughts together that you being a farmer and having met so many of the farms that were have been in the Vermont dairy industry for a long time helped you really to start up some of these projects that you're currently working on?
Amber Blodgett:When I was hired for this team, the Northwest Crop and Soils team has historically worked with Ben and Jerry's in some capacity, either through technical service or research. And when I started, they were about a year into supporting Ben and Jerry's with this low carbon dairy pilot program. And as it turned out, like, some of the folks that are involved in this initiative were people that I had known and worked with for years. So it was just it was really amazing. And I get a little sentimental and a little, like, cheesy about it every time I start talking about it.
Amber Blodgett:My dear friend, Rebecca had just taken had recently taken this job coordinating this program. And one of my favorite teachers from the Miner Institute, Colt, who we've also done a webinar with, she was consulting as a dairy nutritionist on this project as part of our team. And most of the partnering farms that were part of this project, I had either worked with or, like, literally sat next to at some community event within the past decade or two. But it it just it was really impossible for me to to be able to work with this group of people. In fact, one of the partnering farms was the farm that I started working at when I was 14 milking I feel just so fortunate to have stumbled into this perfect fit, even though the project was just so it's a it's a big project as we'll we'll talk about here.
Amber Blodgett:And I don't know if we ever really figured it all out, but we did a ton of work with these files. And it was just the human aspect of all this work was just really impactful for me. And I know for Rebecca and Per, it was really great to have such a kind of connected group of folks working together towards a common common goal.
Glenda Pereira:Yeah. And I will say, oftentimes people ask me, you know, what do you what you must work with cows all the time. You're always with cows twenty four seven. But really, most of my job is with people. And the relationship, the communication that we have with farmers in this role of a technical service provider is is the basis for all of our work.
Glenda Pereira:We have to have a good foundation to be able to work with the farmers. They have to connect with us. They have to trust us. They have to know that if we set a time for when we're gonna be there, we're gonna have this this conversation, this meeting. We're gonna be reliable.
Glenda Pereira:We're gonna be a support network for them. And so it's funny because people always say, oh, you must work with cows all the time. But really, I mean, my job is really working with people. And because the people who manage the cows are who I'm working with. I'm not going as the person and making re reproductive decisions.
Glenda Pereira:I'm working with the herds person to think about this is what pregnancy rate is currently. How can we potentially if you're wanting to improve it, here's potential management changes, and we have a brainstorming session. So it's funny you mentioned that because I think some of this was twofold I'm hearing. This project really helped you learn how to be in this role because of the success in the relationships you already have. When you're starting in a new role, it can be challenging to learn all the skills if everything's an obstacle.
Glenda Pereira:But if you have people who really wanna see you succeed, they're gonna you're gonna call them and say, hey. We need to collect these measurements today. They're gonna be open, receptive to you. It really helps make the project successful and exciting. Like you mentioned, you're really excited to come to work every day.
Amber Blodgett:I had invested. Right? Like, we are all just invested in each other and each other's success, which we'll talk about a little bit later. I was able to do exit interviews with all the farms at the end of this project. And just hearing their feedback was really awesome.
Amber Blodgett:But it was unexpected because I think they they came up with the same conclusion. They yeah, they really learned a lot about tech flares, the cover cropping or crop rotation, or they really, they liked doing the path, the healing renovation. But at the end of the day, single one of these farms was, Hey, I really liked having another set of eyes on my farm. I really liked having someone to talk about my farm with. I really liked that you and Kurt showed up every few weeks, and you were I knew you were looking at something and tracking and measuring.
Amber Blodgett:And I didn't know exactly what it was at the time, but I really appreciated having other people on their farms talking to them, which yeah, theme of I don't know. It doesn't seem it was it surprised me that that was the value that everyone picked out for this project. I'm gonna talk about all the things that we did, but that was a big take home message.
Glenda Pereira:You you became almost an extension of their farm team. And I worked with some farms in that capacity too where oftentimes I offered to be a facilitator. And all I'm doing is organizing meetings for the farm, taking notes, but we invite all the key players that they wanna invite to have a farm team meeting. And and I can always be there to support what whatever brainstorming we're having, but we're like an extension of their farm team even though we can't go to every single farm and be that person. But for the farm as we work with farms interchangeably throughout our careers, we we can be that role for them.
Glenda Pereira:Yeah. So tell us a little bit more about this project and why Ben and Jerry's wanted to work with the farms that were, I'm assuming, supplying milk to the Ben and Jerry's production line.
Amber Blodgett:Yeah. So it's no secret that Ben and Jerry's is a a pretty sizable processor with deep roots in our state of Vermont, And their brand really promotes this holistic approach to both sustainability and environmental stewardship and also the people that are as involved in all aspects of their business. There it is again. But they've made an effort to really understand where their company's greenhouse gas emissions come from at as part of that environmental stewardship pillar of their business. And what they did was they really they did some work to identify where those greenhouse gas emissions were coming from Mhmm.
Amber Blodgett:Across the board with a baseline greenhouse gas emissions assessment. And they found that about half or 46% of their company's emissions, total emissions come from dairy production, which may or may not be surprising. Like a business or a processor this big has a whole bunch of different aspects that will contribute to their greenhouse gas emissions. There's a ton of transport. They're sourcing other ingredients from places.
Amber Blodgett:There's franchises and packaging and a whole bunch of things that go into that calculation. But Dairy is, it's a big contributor. So they set out to learn what can be done in the real world to move the needle, not only the company, but also on an individual farm scale. So this Ben and Jerry's Low Carbon Dairy pilot program, as I said, it it got started before I joined the team, but it worked locally with seven farms that were located in Northwestern Vermont. The farm size ranged from 60 cows to about a thousand milking cows.
Amber Blodgett:So big range in all the different sizes of farms and all farms that were put different places with technology, different places with crop production, different management, but also all folks who are really invested in long term business sustainability and being part of this dairy industry and also stewards of the environment. They want to do better. So the purpose of the program was to really develop a whole farm approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and identify what realistically can be done by individual farms to move the needle on their carbon footprint. And the first step was to figure out how we might quantify a farm's carbon footprint. You can't manage what you don't measure.
Amber Blodgett:Yes. And there's a variety of tools out there that do these calculations for farms. These exist. But at the end of the day, what we look at is a farm's carbon intensity in terms of their total greenhouse gas emissions divided by fat and protein corrected milk production. So it's an efficiency game.
Amber Blodgett:It boils down to production efficiency, which is super handy because efficiency is really the foundation of all aspects of sustainability on all dairy farms. That's where it's at. We're used to benchmarking for labor efficiency and crop production efficiency and milk production efficiency. And this program was just putting all that together with maybe just a bit of a
Glenda Pereira:twist on it. And then part of what was for for a company like Ben and Jerry's, them having curiosity for what the farms that were supplying product to them, quantifying what they what those farms. And of course, like I said, there were there was a lot of there were there wide spectrum of the farmers that were participating, but it helped quantify that. And of course, farmers far I've oftentimes I have to talk to people and they're they're surprised that farmers are efficient. And I'm, well, of course they are.
Glenda Pereira:They have to make there is no choice. They they have to be efficient because there's little time, little money to go around, and, they're they're doing their best with the resources that they have access to and weather's one of the biggest challenges that they have to manage with, which affects forage, etcetera. So but I think it's really neat that Ben and Jerry's wanted to quantify this and put some numbers to it. And, like you said, give it that twist with efficiency, and that was greenhouse gas emission production per fat per energy corrected fat and protein. Is that correct?
Glenda Pereira:Can you say that again? Yeah.
Amber Blodgett:Yeah. So I think it was, like, per kilogram of fat and protein corrected milk. Okay. So production if it's efficiency. Components matter.
Amber Blodgett:Let me back up a minute. Like, transparency, like, on the Ben and Jerry's side for these partnering farms, they were compensated across the three years of the program. They were compensated for being part of the program. That meant that they would share pretty much any information that we asked for. And they were also offered the opportunity to get some cost sharing on some equipment or, I guess it's not all equipment improvement, like just general improvements, which was great.
Amber Blodgett:If you big picture dairy industry, like having that kind of financial support from a processor is a big deal and it's not commonplace. And it so the relative success of this program, I think, can also be evaluated based on how farms feel about receiving support from the industry and food processors, not just for a service provider or technical avenue, but also just financially, because we know that hey, dollars talk. And they at the end of the day, profitability if if a farm can't be profitable or diversify their income streams, that's really gonna be a barrier to long term sustainability. So I don't know who came up with the structure that that financial structure on the Ben and Jerry's side, but I think it's just really important to to note the value of that to our farms in this kind of program. Alright.
Amber Blodgett:So the project goals for these seven farms in the short term was for the seven farms to reduce their dairy greenhouse gas emissions intensity by 50% below the industry average while optimizing farm productivity and financial performance and increasing farm resilience. So a bit of a mouthful, but it all makes sense. Long term Ben and Jerry's was hoping to use this pilot program to figure out what it, what would work on more farms. So Ben and Jerry's doesn't just buy cream from seven farms. There's an entire supply chain.
Amber Blodgett:And so they really wanted to use this pilot program to see what works in the real world that they could scale across other farms that are in their supply chain that would make a difference. And they identified, let's we'll go back a little bit here. The biggest sources of greenhouse gas emissions on a dairy farm are enteric. The methane that cows burp up as ruminant. There's some greenhouse gases from manure and then also from cropping, like the import of synthetic nutrient and fertilizers.
Amber Blodgett:So again, all of these components go back to efficiencies. We want to be as efficient as possible. We want to make that ruminants as efficient as possible, meaning we're not we're feeding them nutrients and we're supporting rumen health so that they are working as efficiently as possible to produce that milk and the components. On the cropping end, we are trying to optimize yield and nutrients for my crops so that we're getting essentially the best bang for our buck out of every acre, because we don't have to spend money to buy in nutrients if we can grow them. Right.
Amber Blodgett:And also, we want to not over apply fertilizers because it's a real cost. It also has some other environmental implications. So it's a whole farm approach here to looking at all those different sources of greenhouse gas emissions on dairy farms. And the program came up with seven different categories of intervention. For instance, one of the interventions is regenerative agriculture.
Amber Blodgett:What are we talking about? We're talking about using reduced or no till strategies and preserving soil health. We're talking about using cover crops to keep the soil covered and making sure we're protecting our waterways. We're talking about using crop rotation as a crop management strategy. So I
Glenda Pereira:need to do everything that builds organic matter and holds nutrients in place, it seems like.
Amber Blodgett:Yeah. Like that whole nutrient cycle, making it more efficient, making it more cost effective. What's cool though is that making that system more efficient and cost effective is also what's going to impact the farm's bottom line. It's spending your dollars more efficiently to get the most out of what you have. The other interventions or pillars that, that supported this program were looking at increasing the quality and quantity of homegrown forages in the diet, which might seem a little counterintuitive because we know that forages in the rumen produce methane.
Amber Blodgett:But the flip side is that if you can grow more of your own nutrients for your cows and purchase in fewer concentrates, that's going to have a bit a bigger impact on your farm's head and footprint. Yeah. And also, we know that forages in the ration really support component production and healthy rumens and healthy animals. Yeah.
Glenda Pereira:And decreasing the transportation of those forages is one of the ways, like you had mentioned, transportation is a big contributor to greenhouse gases for many companies. So reducing that as well as, I think, just being able to control a little bit more your forage quality, which, again, the weather hasn't been helpful in the past couple of years, but you growing your own forages can sometimes have that that ability or not. Sometimes it's a constraint that you can't get out to make forage today or tomorrow just based on logistics. But, yes, sir certainly can be an intervention.
Amber Blodgett:Yeah. And I think the program was really banking on a rumen modifier or a feed additive that would help to reduce that to move the dial on that enteric emissions number. We didn't quite get there. They were looking at some seaweed products in the beginning that didn't pass its, like, federal inspections. So that was a bummer.
Amber Blodgett:And then we looked at some other products on the market and just ran out of time to integrate these into the farms management. Also thinks there's some real financial barriers to some of those added in. So clearly there needs to be a system in place to make it worthwhile for farms to use these additives if that's an industry goal. I think for Ben and Jerry's, it is. They want to encourage that.
Amber Blodgett:And there is there's a lot of opportunity there and hopefully some financial gain that will be developed in the future. But we didn't get there during this part, this this pilot program. Also look at animal welfare and longevity. Again, efficiency, like the lowest amount of milk per animal, and also looking at replacements. So the number of replacements you have in a herd, rightsizing the replacements to your herd so that you're not because those heifers let me back up a little.
Amber Blodgett:If the denominator of this equation is fat and protein corrected milk production, and you have to spread that across all of your animals. If you have all these replacements who are not generating any fat and protein corrected milk, then you need to make sure you don't have too many of them because they're messing up your numbers.
Glenda Pereira:And it's not applicable right now because I don't know anyone who's got an excess of heifers right now. I think everybody's short. But certainly, some farms in in in the time when you were conducting this project might have had too many heifers, might have been at potentially 50% replacement rate and needed to be at 30 or 20 just based on how many cows were entering their milking string.
Amber Blodgett:Yeah. Yes. And, I mean, we've I think we have the this this whole beef on dairy market to really thank for correcting that in a, like, financially responsible I don't that's probably not the right term, but, like, making it financially attractive to not have too many replacements because of the value of those black calves. Yeah. Which is great.
Amber Blodgett:Because some farms, like you said, hadn't really looked at that before. You just you raise everything that drops because that's where you're at. Yep. You know? Alright.
Amber Blodgett:So our team worked with the parenting farms to assess their starting point for each of the focuses or pillars, the seven focuses of this program. And really on a farm by farm basis, we helped to identify the potential areas for improvement and set some goals for the program and the individual farms. And then it just became really a matter of measuring things and tracking them over time. And then being boots on the ground, on the farms to be like, hey, this small thing or this big thing is gonna move the needle for you. We worked with the Ben and Jerry's team as well as other contractors and stakeholders to facilitate some educational opportunities for the farms.
Amber Blodgett:We had some speakers come in, which were great. And we also made an effort to present the information that we gathered and the data that we collected from these farms and the data that we collected through independent controlled research trials on our research farm, both to the group and to the individual farms, which looked like what we called kitchen table meeting every year, which is where our team and some of the Ben and Jerry's team would literally go to these farms, like often in their homes or their farm offices and sit around their kitchen table and talk through the numbers that we had collected in the various areas of data collection that we were doing and try to figure out what was the barrier to making an improvement. I'll give you an example. One of the things that we looked at was feed storage, because feed storage is a common barrier on farms to preserving, not only preserving the nutrients that are harvested from the field, but also having enough space to have enough forage, to have enough forage inclusion in the rationed worker needle. And so we were able to sit down at the table as a team and be like, right, how can we segregate these feeds better?
Amber Blodgett:And so some farmers were able to use cost share money to pour new bulk or put up a wall so that they could keep their first cut and their second cut or their first cut and their fourth cut separately and feed them more appropriate to the biological needs of their feeding groups. We also had some farms who were able to get some cost share funding to invest in bulk roller packers to improve their packing density. Kurt and I were able to, we go everyone else to every farm and use the Dairy One forage probe and do the dry matter calculation and everything to come up with a, this is what your bunk density is for all the feeds that you have open to, and if you don't, if you're not doing that, you just, you don't know. We also did forage. We sampled all of their open forages every month to really, that's the only way you can really have a handle on how your forage quality is changing.
Amber Blodgett:And it's really the only way you can have the proof and the the foundational information that you need to make business decisions or make management decisions, essentially.
Glenda Pereira:And you said it earlier, you wanna manage what you don't measure. So you and Kurt were measuring. We're helping these farms to measure. And oftentimes, time is a constraint for farms. So you and Kurt were able to measure this to then give them some real numbers to back up the management change that they were gonna potentially have to implement.
Glenda Pereira:Yeah.
Amber Blodgett:Yeah. And then it was a long enough program that we could also see some results too. For example, I'm gonna, like, shift gears a little bit here. One of the other things that we did with farms or our team did with the farms was collect, do a lot of pre sidedress soil nitrate testing for Cornfield. And as part of as part of being in the Ben and Jerry's world, like these farms are required to have a certain number of those tests done every year and not necessarily prior to use them.
Amber Blodgett:So we not only did we do the pre side draft soil nitrate testing and get the results to the farms in a timely fashion so that they could use them, we also followed up by taking cornstalk nitrate concentration tests at the end of the season and then working with each farm to go back and see how much fertilizer did you apply? Did you apply over the recommended rate? And how did that impact how much nitrogen you may have wasted or didn't use the plants didn't use efficiently? And I think that just even if the numbers didn't necessarily support exactly what we were going for. The thought process and the whole the whole communication of what we were doing and how the science works, that really impacted folks.
Amber Blodgett:That encouraged them to really look at their PSNTs and apply them within their comfort level. Because we know, like, those PSNTs, they're also impacted by, like you said, weather and soil type and a whole bunch of other factors that are outside of our control. But it's a mindset shift. And what is
Glenda Pereira:the PSNT? I don't know.
Amber Blodgett:The the PSNT is the pre side dry side dress.
Glenda Pereira:Sorry.
Amber Blodgett:Yes. Soil nitrate test. Yes. Yes. It's measuring how much nitrogen is in the soil available for the that corn crop to take up before you buy that top dress in July or at the right grade stage.
Amber Blodgett:And really, it for farms that are applying manure or and use and used to using a lot of synthetic nitrogen, they might not need to top dress as much as they always have. And then and they've always applied a certain amount of nitrogen because that's what they've always done. Right. So this thought experiment, thought process, I think, had a impact on folks, which was great because, again, benefits the program because we're trying to reduce those imported nutrients, but also you can save a ton of money Right. Without impacting yield and quality.
Amber Blodgett:And that's a real cost. Alright.
Glenda Pereira:Yeah. It seems a lot of the and that was one of the questions I wanted to ask you was what are some things that surprised you and surprised the farmers in participating in this program? And it seemed the expectations they had going into the program were much different than the expectations when they exited the program because there was so there were so many other benefits that they were potentially not thinking about. Crop production and crop yields and I I don't know if you mentioned this, but feed cost is a substantial cost to the cost of production of milk. It's about 50 I think it's 46 to 50% of your cost of producing milk.
Glenda Pereira:And so, again, going back to that homegrown forage conversation, the the fertilizers and not applying potentially nitrogen when the plant needs it is extremely costly. You're you're impacting all of these variables. The feed cost is potentially gonna have a reduced cost because you're being more strategic in how you are applying the plant's nutrient needs. Yep.
Amber Blodgett:Yeah. And one of the other, like, forage related aspects that we worked on with these farms is renovating perennial grass stands to include some legumes and grass varieties that work best in our area and in our soil types to improve overall fiber digestibility and nutrient content, again, to support that component production and reduce the need for concentrate purchases. And let's look through this program, we worked with these 70 farms, and we renovated over 150 acres across these farms. And we did it through a few different we met the farms where they were at. There's some different ways you can do this.
Amber Blodgett:You can terminate the existing crop and clear seed everything, or you can no till drill you can drill seed into existing fields. What we so we went like I said, across the three years, we renovated over 150 acres with this seed mix that that we thought would really fit the bill for most of these farms. They had some alfalfa, some clover, and some really good varieties of fescues and orchard grass. And then we went through and we measured the first yields of the renovated fields and compared them to the first cut yield of unimproved fields for each farm. And so fields under similar management, lots of variables here.
Amber Blodgett:Still, this is not a controlled experiment. This is real farm data collection. But we found that the renovated fields yielded about 0.35 tons of dry matter more than the unapproved field, which is a real number. If you can it's a real number, and it's a real mindset shift for a lot of folks. For some folks, and I'm not saying even just I'm not saying farms in this program, but some folks like hayfield is a hayfield is a hayfield.
Amber Blodgett:Right. You mow it. You take. You give when you can. But mostly, it's a taking game.
Amber Blodgett:So, like, putting this mindset shift into place that we can if we can do some renovation, give something to this field in terms of seed and fertility that will support production efficiency and really move your needle on your feed costs, this means a worthwhile investment in the land, in your business, in the cows. And so we we just we really worked with these farms to figure out how they can best manage for the long term longevity of those fields too. So we're looking at mowing height and mowing, like harvest frequency, all those management factors that unless someone really is right there asking you what you're doing and like talking you through it, like you just follow the same routine that you always have. Right?
Glenda Pereira:And do do you think that there were management practices that folks were more eager to adopt versus not? The the crops one seems very evident because if I'm saving x amount of fertilizer next year because I've introduced legumes who are nitrogen fixing, that's a really nice one. But I'm curious to know if there was any just any clear practices that folks leaned more towards than not. But maybe because you and Kurt and there were other ag service providers present for support, maybe they felt they had the infrastructure to put these practices in place.
Amber Blodgett:Yeah. I mentioned earlier that as part of the wrap up for this program, and we're still looking at the process of wrapping up this program, we don't have our final individual farm carbon footprint. So I can't answer the question, did we were we successful in reducing carbon emissions over 50%? I'm not sure. I don't have those answers yet, but we were able to conduct individual, I was able to conduct individual, I'm using air quotes, exit interviews with these farms, which were so much fun.
Amber Blodgett:And answer, I'm not just, I'm not just slabbering here. I'm going to answer your question. We asked a whole bunch of questions, including which inter we use this term intervention, which practice, which which part of this program had the largest impact on your farm. And over half of the farms said that learning about and implementing crop rotation and renovation strategies to improve forage yield and quality was top of the list. We also had a few of the farms get cost share on feed pushers in their barns, and that had a huge impact.
Amber Blodgett:They immediately saw a bump in their bulk tank, which is a lot of surprise, but something that they probably would not have they might not necessarily have had access to if they hadn't been part of this program. Some of the other didn't talk about it, but we trialed some nitrogen inhibitors on some of the farms, and they were super weather dependent because nitrogen volatilization is impacted by the weather and the and the growing conditions. But folks really liked that and liked learning about it and and seeing the impacts of it. They they they get that it's sort of insurance policy. They also said that the aspects of improving feed storage in terms of knowing what their bulk packing, what their bulk density is and having someone to talk about what changes to their bulk packing or not bulk packing, their feed storage infrastructure, like having someone to bounce ideas about where they're going to store feed and how they're going to store feed and what they need was really impactful for them.
Amber Blodgett:And we also did some precision ag technology, like some variable rate fertilizing trials on farms, and folks were really interested in that. They were a lot of them were really excited about where technology is going from the crop management standpoint. Sure. And the other question we asked, so we asked first, like I said, what, what, what of those practices had the largest impact? We also said, well, what was the easiest to implement?
Amber Blodgett:And they said, well, the PSNT testing and the CSNT testing, because they didn't have to do anything for a day, they're doing it for you. Yeah. But it was great that they were interested in that. You know? Or or they had been doing it for years and they finally looked at it.
Amber Blodgett:We had all the farms in the program kind of started looking at cover cropping a little bit differently in terms of like harvesting that cover crop for some really high quality forage.
Glenda Pereira:Yeah.
Amber Blodgett:To to get more out of their land base. Double cropping is gonna improve their overall production efficiency of crops. They also we did all of the farms had energy audits, major improvements in terms of, like, energy efficiency. And they also All the farms did at least one Novus cows assessment. So looked at animal welfare in terms of lameness and stocking density and their facilities.
Amber Blodgett:Several of the farms were able to use that information to get new stalls or justify the need for improvements and investments in their facilities. The biggest barriers that these farms found in in implementing these practices were barriers that we see, you know, very common barriers, labor, finances and costs, everything's expensive. Weather, like you said, it's a wild card. We don't have any control over that. Education.
Amber Blodgett:You know, some of the practices were, you know, pretty new or just practices that they weren't familiar with. So they've had to they had to learn about them. They had to think about it. And all of these friends were super willing to try something new, but it's different to be willing to try something new than it is to have buy in. Yep.
Amber Blodgett:There's a there was
Glenda Pereira:a there's a learning curve to a lot of these practices, which take time. But something I think that's beneficial for this project was that they had you and Kurt, and they had each other as and I was I think you probably had, like, group meetings where they were able to come together as the the entire seven farms and talk about this amongst each other. So that was beneficial too. They had each other, and then they had US technical service providers to then take on some of the energy and time that it requires to learn a new practice and implement a new practice.
Amber Blodgett:Yeah. Yeah. And each farm was a little bit different in that aspect too. Their it was very clear looking across the three years of the program when I talked to them at the end of the program, how much buy in they had into the program. This was, we can't force fire owners to participate in this stuff.
Amber Blodgett:We weren't looking to force them into participating in anything, but it was really clear that the ones who were most engaged, and there, there was a scale who was engaged or who was less engaged, The ones who are most engaged, they really got the most benefit out of it, both financially and mindset management in all aspects of it.
Glenda Pereira:I'm curious too. Was there so something that I just wanted to highlight was did as you were also working with these farms, did they indicate any future educational opportunities that they would have liked to see? Or what's some of what they mentioned in in that you're potentially participating in as future program areas and educational topics.
Amber Blodgett:Yeah. There was I was I was happy that some of the farms called out that we had not we'd we'd done we did some of the financial risk and reward analysis for some of the practices that we did, but we didn't really we didn't dive in a lot into the financial aspects of that. And they were like, Hey, I want specific tools so that I can really evaluate the financial risks and rewards for my farm for this. So I think that is something that a lot of those tools exist. It's just finding the tool that works best for the scenario.
Amber Blodgett:But it was great to hear that they were that was on their radar. They were really interested in that. A lot of the farms, like I said, are super into precision ag technology and using drones, variable rate, spreading technology. And a lot of these folks are getting the programs on their tractor to measure yield and quality right off the field. So I think there's still a lot of technical service opportunity in helping them dial in which metrics and which information they want to look at.
Amber Blodgett:We've talked about that a lot in the webinars series this year, as we've looked at different technologies that dairy free users are using. It's so much data. What is going to be the most useful to them? And they recognize that and they're, I think they're really, the funds that we were working with were super excited to continue to work with us in that area. For us now, for our team, since this pilot project is over, let's back up a little bit here.
Amber Blodgett:As the pilot project has concluded, there's the goals for the Ben and Jerry's program are really to determine what worked best in a real world on farm scenario that we think will move the needle for greenhouse gas emissions. And again, you don't have to understand all the science behind that. It's really just about efficiency. It's about meeting setting and meeting some real fat and protein corrected milk production goals and dialing in how nutrients cycle on your farm. So the Ben and Jerry's team, they want to really use this as a way to identify and move forward with implementing some of these practices on other farms that they work with and other farms in their supply chain.
Amber Blodgett:For us, we were really excited about helping farms grow more nutrients and look at how fermentation and preservation and storage can help keep those nutrients intact and available for the cow and support that fat and protein corrected milk. So this, for the next two years, what we'll be doing is tracking those renovated fields that I talked about. You know, I said, look, there's over 150 acres of fields that were either clear seeded or renovated in some capacity. And so what we're doing now is looking at there's 18 fields that we're collecting yield and quality samples and data from for every cut, to see how long that, effort to improve that field lasts. Again, what management factors support the longevity of that stand?
Amber Blodgett:So we're looking at like cutting height and cutting frequency, but really just how well these feed mixes persevere in the environment. And hopefully we'll be able to connect back to- But it'd be great to be able to also associate that with how- with a reduction in concentrate purchases for these farms. Right. That's a big goal. But just collect more supporting information on how farms can best grow more of their own nutrients.
Glenda Pereira:I think that's a You had mentioned that your team's gonna be working on some future projects, and one of them is be growing more so growing for so growing forages that have more amino acids in them potentially. So I think that's an exciting project that's to come. And as well as looking at how you can improve management to improve water quality as well, not only for your animals, but overall in the state of Vermont. And so as you were talking about all of the efficient components of this project, I think you've you're gonna continue to work on that efficiency metric because water quality is important as well as you said growing more of your nutrients and and, you know, better quality. Amino acids are what build the proteins that then build everything within the animal.
Glenda Pereira:So, growing better forage and and specifically on the amino acid component, I think, is something that can really, in in addition, move the needle. And I don't know if it's related to Ben and Jerry's or not, but you had mentioned that those are gonna be some projects your team's focusing on.
Amber Blodgett:Yeah. Yeah. Ben and Jerry's is they continue to support our research. They understand the value it has for funds. This whole precision feeding, precision feed management, precision amino acid feeding is it's so exciting when it comes to dairy nutrition and, like, the potential that is out there.
Amber Blodgett:You know? Like, the The folks who are doing this research, they have said, Our dairy herd has the genetic potential to produce this unlimited component. We just have to support it, Not just nutritionally, through management also, but that's great. How can we do that as cost effective as possible? Because those amino acid products, well, they might get you to your goal.
Amber Blodgett:They're expensive. And if we can identify the forages, the forage species, the forage varieties, and the management that will help us to optimize the amino acid content, amino acids contents in our homegrown forages, that's gonna be clutch to dairy nutrition and and and long term sustainability of these.
Glenda Pereira:It's just gonna improve our bottom line again because feed cost is really expensive, and those those minerals and vitamins are the costly components within that cost of production for feed and protein certainly because we don't tend to raise a ton of protein here in the Northeast and in New England. A lot of our protein comes from the Midwest or other source or other areas of the country. And so help making improving our forage production to be able to do that will decrease our overall feed cost, which is really beneficial.
Amber Blodgett:You bring up a an interesting point here. Some farms are really like, sometimes you're used to buying protein, but that is it's it's not cheap. And, also, I feel like it's a real New England maybe it's a Fremont, but I feel like it's a new some kind of aspect of pride in who you are. You can grow it If you can grow it yourself, that's what you're gonna do. And if we can we we can.
Amber Blodgett:You know? There's challenges. You have to be really on your management. You have to be on point, but we can do it. Yep.
Amber Blodgett:If we can,
Glenda Pereira:we're going to.
Amber Blodgett:You know?
Glenda Pereira:And I think it's it's having projects like these and having technical assistance providers like yourself and Kurt to then support those goals because it takes a lot to measure all of these data points and to even make sense of them. And those table talks that you mentioned where the team came together are really where some of these things happen, and farmers need support in this capacity. So it's really exciting that this project was able to do that and that we have you as a resource continuing on to to conduct this work. And we were previously talking about how the the the three states, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, were looking for the future to to potentially do more professional development training so that we can all continue to provide these and measure. I think measuring is really what we can help farmers with, to then again meet those those long term sustainable goals, which include measuring all the the burden, some data points that take time.
Amber Blodgett:Yeah. Hey, Glenda. I think you really nailed it there because I I struggle with this a little bit. I think it you know, it's because because my background is in actually farming and managing cows. I know that farmers are smart people.
Amber Blodgett:They can find the information that they need. They can learn whatever they wanna learn. They don't need service providers to tell them how to do it because they're already doing it, and they already see the result of what they're doing. In this role, we what we have to offer as service providers and extension folks is support in collecting and making that meaningful, useful information that they can actually utilize to make decisions because they're busy. You know?
Amber Blodgett:They're busy doing the thing. So if we can support them in taking the information that they're already producing and delivering it in a way that helps them make a decision, that's where it's at. Yeah. Value wise for them, and and it's super rewarding for us too, I think. Yeah.
Glenda Pereira:I couldn't agree more. Cool. Well, thank you so much, Amber, for sitting down with me today and chatting about this Ben and Jerry's project, which was really critical in in, you know, helping the the seven farms that you work with. But I know it has much more of a bigger and broader impact to the dairy industry in Vermont and to any of the dairy production folks or the the folks in the supply chain of the Ben and Jerry's project. But the conversation we had today in this project and everything you shared potentially can give insight to other farms and other service providers for how they can better support their clients.
Glenda Pereira:So this was super, knowledgeable. Thank you, Amber, again, and you're an asset to our New England, dairy industry, so I'm super thankful to have you as a partner and collaborator.
Amber Blodgett:No. I really appreciate that. Feels so good with me.
Glenda Pereira:Alright. Well, if folks have topic suggestions, questions, or comments, be sure to email us at extension.farmcast@Maine.edu.