Location: Northwest Irrigation and Soils Research
Project Number: 2054-12000-013-015-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Sep 1, 2025
End Date: Aug 31, 2027
Objective:
Regenerative resource use is quickly becoming a necessity for global dairy market access and will require collaborative efforts for U.S. Dairy to remain competitive and relevant to today’s consumers and secure livelihoods of U.S. farmers. The development and adoption of economically viable technologies and practices that improve productivity, capture/generate value from manure resources, protect soil health and improve forage production will be essential to improve overall farm profitability. The objective of this project is to evaluate new practices at commercial dairies that will enable producers to enhance resource utilization and improve production and profitability.
Approach:
Research will be conducted at commercial dairies representative of the western U.S. dairy industry. Practices will be evaluated for all phases of production to enhance resource use and improve overall farm management including: Better feed production and practice changes such as cover crops or double cropping, innovative crop rotations, renewable fertilizers and precision agriculture. Improved cow efficiency through optimized feed rations and feed additives. Improved manure handling and nutrient management to reduce nutrient losses from manure storage, technologies to capture nutrients and improved nutrient management planning.
Baseline data will be collected related to forage production practices and yield, milk production and feeding practices, manure handling and storage and nutrient management. Following establishment of a baseline, a variety of practices will be implemented to optimize overall farm management and assess impacts on production, nutrient capture/management and soil health. Data collection will consist of nutrient flows and losses on farm (feed, manure, cropping systems), production data (milk yield and components, forage yield and quality), and soil health using common sampling and analytical techniques.