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One trip to look at an anaerobic digester on a dairy in central Minnesota was all it took to convince Lee Jensen that the technology would be a good fit for his 900-cow Five Star Dairy near Elk Mound, Wis.

Forage quality also contributes to an operation’s carbon footprint. We put significant research into selecting hybrids that give us good tonnage as well as high digestibility. If we can maximize forage digestibility, the cows will more efficiently turn nutrients into milk.

Preplanning makes variable-rate technology cheaper and easier to manage for application of nitrogen and seed

Tight water supplies force ethanol efficiency

Northern plantings of winter wheat help save ducks in the flyway

Survey of wheat growers shows desire to inject traits

Today’s technology has greatly improved our ability to decrease our carbon footprint. As stewards of the land, farmers care more for the environment than anyone else in the world. We make our living off of the land; why wouldn’t we take care of it?

Carbon emissions and going green definitely seem to be tied to everything these days and dairy farms are in the thick of the debate. Agriculture as a whole has always been at the forefront of efficiency and maximizing productivity to survive. The economic challenges of this past year have put any and all inefficiencies and wasteful practices under a microscope.

I attended the Sustainability Summit for U.S. Dairy in June 2008, put on by Dairy Management Inc. The topic was reducing the carbon footprint of the U.S. dairy industry.

Ukrainians see their agricultural industry flexing its muscles, evolving out of the old inefficient collective farms left when the Soviet system collapsed in 1991.