This document summarizes a research project on climate change mitigation and adaptation in dairy production systems in the Great Lakes region. It involves researchers from 13 institutions studying ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt dairy farming to climate change through changes to cow feeding, manure management, and crop production. They are evaluating these practices using models and field trials to identify the most effective strategies to lower emissions and increase farm profitability. A key outcome is education of students through the transformation of a Milwaukee high school into one focused on agricultural sciences.

1. Matt Ruark
Dept. Soil Science, UW-Madison & UW-Extension
Molly Jahn
Dept. Plant Genetics, UW-Madison
Climate change
mitigation and adaptation
in dairy production
systems of the Great
Lakes region
Award Number:
2013-68002-20525

2. University of Wisconsin-Madison
Cornell University
Penn State University
University of Maryland
University of Arkansas
University of Michigan
University of Washington
North Carolina A&T State
USDA-ARS labs (x3)
Innovation Center for US Dairy
National Agricultural Library
30 PIs, 13 Institutions, 5 years, one heartbeat

4. Where Are The Dairy Cows?

5. 95% CH4
5% CH4
What percent of the methane comes out
of the backend of the cow?

6. Short-term (change in knowledge)
 Greater understanding of where GHG emissions are the
greatest in the dairy production system, where they can
be reduced, and which adaptation strategies can be
implemented.
Medium-term (change in behavior)
 Management practices are implemented by farmers to
reduce GHG emissions and adapt to climate change.
Long-term (change in condition)
 Reduction in GHG emissions from dairy production
systems
 Dairy production systems are able to adapt to changes in
climate
We have kept the focus on outcomes.

7. Measurement
 Cow, Manure, and Soil
 Database development
Modeling
 Process model comparison
 Identify climate change scenarios and impacts
Life Cycle Assessment
 System boundary definition & LC inventory database
 Coupling of LCA and process models
Extension
Education
Objective topics

8. Cow research has focused on feeding
trials using isolation chambers

9. Cow research has focused on feeding
trials using isolation chambers

10. Increasing the digestibility of neutral
detergent fiber (NDF) will increase methane
per cow, but decrease methane per unit milk.
Use of Ca(OH)2 treated corn stover in the diet
could lead to an increase in digestibility
without affecting performance.
Can we improve the digestibility of fiber
for win-win scenarios?

11. Water added to obtain 50% DM
Ca(OH)2 added at 7.0% of mix DM
Stover +H2O Stover + Ca(OH)2
IVNDFD30, % 40.2 57.1
11

12. Treated stover had no effect on milk
production and decreased methane per unit
milk when at 15% of DM feed.
Ca(OH)2 corn stover % DM P-value
0 5 10 15 Linear Quadratic
Milk, kg/d
32.4 33.9 28.5 33.6 0.80 0.24
CH4/Milk
18.8 17.7 20.0 14.4 0.06 0.08
Preliminary data, Wattiaux et al., 2016

13. We are interested in following the effect of
management through the dairy production
system.

15. 0
5
10
15
20
25
30
gCO2-eq/kgrawmanure
Carbon Dioxide Storage Methane Storage Nitrous Oxide Storage
Carbon Dioxide Field Methane Field Nitrous Oxide Field
a
b
b
a
b
c
b
Holly et al., In Review, 2016
Contact Matt Ruark, mdruark@wisc.edu for details of this project

16. We have published the data in the Ag
Data Commons.
Holly, M.A., Larson, R.A., Powell, J.M., Ruark,
M.D., and C. Barford. 2016. Carbon Dioxide,
Methane, Nitrous Oxide, and Ammonia
Emissions from Digested and Separated Dairy
Manure during Storage and Land Application.
Ag Data Commons. (Embargoed)
https://data.nal.usda.gov/dataset/carbon-
dioxide-methane-nitrous-oxide-and-ammonia-
emissions-digested-and-separated-dairy-0

17. Other feeding trials
Penn State has GHG studies on solid manure
Wisconsin, Cornell, Penn State, and USDA-ARS
in Marshfield, WI have cropping system or
manure application field trials
There are many, many other studies

18. Two scenarios:
Large farm: 1500 cows
Small farm: 150 cows
Models
IFSM
DayCENT
Apex
DNDC
Our modeling team is conducting a systematic
analysis of BMPs on GHG, N, and P across
multiple agricultural models

19. 0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
IFSM4.1_dig.8 ManureDNDC v3_dig.17 CNCPS6.1 DayCent.6_dig APEX0806.7_dig
GW(kgCO2eq./cow/d)
Manure - N2O
Manure - CH4
Field - N2O
Field - CH4
Barn_other - N2O
Barn_other - CH4
Barn_enteric - N2O
Barn_enteric - CH4
Baseline conditions
Large herd
Preliminary data, Olivier Joliet, Univ. Michigan, 2016

20. Beneficial Management Practices: Feed
# Feed scenarios Characteristics
0 Baseline
1 High corn silage
The amount of corn silage is increased and alfalfa/grass is
reduced from a ratio of 1:1 to 3:1 in animal diets.
2 50% forage rations
Low forage rations (reduced from 65% to 50% DMI) fed to
lactating cows with crop land adjusted to provide feed
needed.
3 High NDF digestibility NDF digestibility of feeds is increased 2%.
4 High feed efficiency
Feed efficiency is increased from about 1.5 to 1.65 kg
milk/kg feed dry matter intake
5 High fat
Supplemental fat in diet of lactating cows is increased from
0.4 to 0.9 kg/day per cow.
6 Reduced protein Diet protein of lactating cows is reduced from 17% to 14%.
A Combined feed Scenario A All BMPs 1 to 6 combined
B Combined feed Scenario B Same as A, except for 2, keep 65% forage
C Combined feed Scenario C Same as B with rye silage double cropped after corn silage.

21. Beneficial Management Practices:
Manure & Soil/Crop Management
# Manure Management scenarios Characteristics
0 Baseline
1 Separation
A separator is used to remove a portion of the manure
solids, which are used for bedding
2 Digestion
An anaerobic digester is used to create biogas and
electricity used on the farm and digestate as a slurry.
3 Separation and digestion Manure separation and anaerobic digestion are both used.
4 Sealed with flare
Covered manure storage with flare to burn biogas
produced converting the CH4 to CO2
# Crop & field scenarios Characteristics
0 Baseline
1 Cover crop Annual grass cover crop following corn
2 Summer application
Nine month manure storage with spring and early summer
application -> N fertilizer reduced to 60 kg N/ha.
3 Rye double crop
Winter rye crop established following corn silage harvest
and harvested as silage in the spring.
4 Incorporated same day
Manure incorporated into the soil the same day of
application with N fertilizer use reduced to 40 kg N/ha.
5 No-till
No-till establishment used for all crops with no
incorporation of manure.
6 No-till with injection
No-till establishment used for all crops with manure
applied through subsurface injection; no N fertilizer used.

22. Based on evaluating all the individual BMPs,
we then pared down into three realistic BMPs
scenarios
#
Overall combined feed,
manure, crop scenarios
Characteristics
1 Overall strategy 1
NDF digestibility =2%; feed efficiency +10% ; diet protein
reduced to NRC minimum, anaerobic digester; manure solids are
separated and used for bedding
2 Overall strategy 2 Same as 1 + no-till system with subsurface injection of manure.
3 Overall strategy 3 Same as 2 + Low forage rations (50% of DMI)

23. We identified three BMP scenarios that
reduce N and C losses and increase
profitability of the system.
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
Strategy 1 Strategy 2 Strategy 3
%increaseinnetreturnwithrespecttobaseline
%footprintavoidedwithrespecttobaseline
Reactive N footprinti Carbon footprintl Net return
Preliminary data, Olivier Joliet, Univ. Michigan, 2016

24. http://wpsudev2.vmhost.psu.edu/virtualfarm/
http://wpsudev2.vmhost.psu.edu/virtualfarm/
section/manure-processing-and-storage
http://wpsudev2.vmhost.psu.edu/virtualfarm/
research/tags/manure
We have developed a Virtual Farm for a
range of audiences

25. Built in 1970s to have a focus on international
studies and agriculture
90 acres, 70 acres of usable land and a
greenhouse
1990s ag program eliminated
In 2010, the program was revitalized through
development of an aquaponics program
Vincent High School

29. Between 2013 and 2016, over 1,700 students
have been exposed to career opportunities in
agriculture and food science
 School-to-school exchanges (408), field trips
(240), volunteer experiences (12), FFA (3), and
internships (2)
Seven teachers received training
Education objectives involve curriculum,
mentoring, and collaboration

30. High school curriculum developed:
Animal Science Food Science
Food Science Intro to Agriculture
Environmental Sci. Ag Career Leadership
Total Student Enrollment by Program Area:
Urban Agriculture: 352 Landscaping: 60
Intro to Agriculture: 330 Food Science: 387
Veterinarian Science: 120 Hort.: 399
Animal Science: 487 Environ. Sci.: 369
Agriculture Careers & Leadership: 386
Curriculum efforts have been a huge
success.

31. On August 10th, MPS Superintendent
officially approved the transformation of
VHS into Vincent High School of Agricultural
Sciences.

32. Questions?
Comments?
Concerns?