Reading Time: < 1 minute
Environmental impact evaluation of intensive dairy farming systems has been of growing interest recently as agriculture has several negative influences on the surrounding environment, including eutrophication, declines in biodiversity, and pollution of nearby waterbodies.
Reading Time: 10 minutes
Looking back over ten years of collecting data from pasture-based dairy farmers, it is encouraging to see that there has been progress made with regards to improved sustainability. Two of the main goals of Trace & Save is to support farmers to farm in a more sustainable manner and to create evidence of progress where it is being made.
Reading Time: 11 minutes
The reductions in emissions on the 20 pasture-based dairy farms over the past five years are an encouragement to any farm that would like to reduce their environmental impact. The most significant improvements have come from increased feed conversion efficiency, a higher proportion of pasture in the diet, and lower N fertiliser application rates.
Reading Time: 8 minutes
The value of regenerative farming is the desire of farmers to reduce their environmental impact and align their practices with the services that are inherently part of all ecosystems. But this is not a new concept at all.
Reading Time: < 1 minute
The management of livestock manure is an important consideration for sustainable agriculture on dairy farms. Manure is both a waste product with the potential to pollute, and a potential fertiliser. Whether it trends more towards the one or the other depends largely on how it is managed.
Reading Time: < 1 minute
Improving the efficiency of irrigation water use on farms can reduce input costs, improve the sustained delivery of available water to pastures and enhance the provision of water-related ecosystem services.
Reading Time: 13 minutes
Every farmer should assess their system and see where they still have opportunities to improve. This will probably show them whether their stocking rate is too low, too high, or just right. The data in this case study would suggest that very few farms are in the just right category.
Reading Time: 4 minutes
We did not need this research to give us confidence in the principles we advocate for in terms of nitrogen fertiliser management on dairy pastures. But it is encouraging to see other research which confirms what we have been observing.
Reading Time: < 1 minute
This study presents a novel way to measure the contribution of private extension to farm productivity for club data. Club data refers to any convenience sample obtained from a study group, consulting firm, cooperative or producer organisation.
Reading Time: 7 minutes
We have a huge database of soil results from many pasture-based dairy farms throughout the coastal region of South Africa. I thought it might be interesting to have a look at some of the trends that can be seen from this database.