When livestock farmers manage their pasture soils in a manner that supports soil health, in association with good grazing management practices, the result is soil that has the ability to convert carbon dioxide and methane gas into stable forms of carbon in the soil.
There is also a responsibility to being a land manager. Farmers are in a position to be stewards of the land that they manage.
Every individual in society is reliant on agriculture for the food they eat. The choices that we, as consumers, make in what we buy, influences the demand which is created for certain products or brands.
Grass is abundant in the world, and is able to be grown sustainably for milk production. Pasture-fed cows are very efficiently converting a potentially useless form of nutrients into valuable food for people.
It is important that all employees on a farm are treated fairly and justly, and that their welfare and success are taken into account within their work environment. Farmers, and their well-being, are important. They are the people whose time, energy and effort results in food production for the rest of society.
There are many different food sources of protein. Of these, milk contains the highest quality of protein. It seems as though milk, and milk products, could offer a great solution to protein demand, especially with regards to quality, in the developing world.
Animal welfare is therefore linked to sustainability in that looking after your animals will ensure less need for external inputs.
The Woodlands Dairy soil lab analyses are used as soil sustainability indicators that form a part of the SWAN sustainable system.
I feel that sustainability as a word and term has been thrown around lately as a buzz word that people are impressed by, but do not actually understand. Part of the problem is that sustainability is used to describe a large variation of things.
Woodlands Dairy, a fresh milk processor and producer and packager of dairy products located in the Eastern Cape, partners with Trace & Save, to implement the Woodlands Dairy Sustainability Project.