The spirit of innovation and continuous improvement powering more successful and sustainable dairy farms
How can we ensure safe, reliable and nutritious food for a growing world population with as little environmental impact as possible? Among the many sustainability challenges facing humankind today, this is certainly one of the bigger ones. And when it comes to sustainable food systems, the humble dairy cow plays an outsized role. She has done it for centuries: transform grass into extremely valuable fat and protein for human consumption. But this highly valuable service is in demand more than ever today. And more than ever, we need dairy farmers to succeed in becoming as efficient, productive and sustainable as possible.
This is no easy task. Milk demand is high and is rising globally, but margins remain tight. With herd sizes growing, dairy operations are becoming more complex. Farmers also face increased scrutiny on a wide range of environmental and cow welfare issues: water quality, greenhouse gas emissions, the use of antibiotics, to name a few. Today’s dairy landscape is challenging on a whole new level, demanding new skills and new levels of efficiency.
The mission at GEA is to help dairy farmers rise to these modern-day challenges – to empower them to optimize their operations towards greater profitability and sustainability. GEA is known for its dairy farming technologies, such as state-of-the-art milking and feeding systems, cow monitoring devices, modern herd and manure management solutions – all of which boast a strong track record of increasing the yield and operational efficiency of dairy farms. We spoke with several GEA engineers and experts for a behind-the-scenes look at how these technologies are developed, how they contribute to more sustainable dairy farms, and how farmers can maximize their benefits. Along the way, we uncovered a number of sustainability “keys” – and a dairy farming industry which is surprisingly dynamic…
Read the full article here: Dynamic Dairy Farming: GEA’s sustainable product development
