June 17, 2013 — According to Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack, the dairy industry is the model of how to approach sustainability. That’s why a $10 million grant was awarded to help the cause. Tom Gallagher, CEO of Dairy Management, Inc and the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy joined us on DairyLine’s DMI update Monday to discuss.
June 10, 2013 — Tom Gallagher, CEO for the Innovation Center For U.S. Dairy joins us on “Monday’s DMI Update”:
June 3, 2013 — The right to operate on the farm and consumer choice are two big reasons to improve sustainability. Tom Gallagher, CEO for the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy explains in this weekly DMI update.
May 27, 2013 — The number one killer in America is coronary heart disease. How can dairy consumption help combat this common disease? Greg Miller, President of the Dairy Research Institute and Executive Vice President of the National Dairy Council explains.
May 20, 2013 — Successful dairy operators set benchmarks to measure performance. One way to do that is through the program Farm Smart. Tom Gallagher, CEO for the Innovation Center for U-S Dairy joined us on Monday’s DairyLine Radio program.
May 13, 2013 — USDA recently awarded a $10 million grant to the dairy industry to look for ways to help dairy producers adapt to a changing climate and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The money will go into the university system as part of a research grant for a program called Farm Smart.
The project will be led by scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and includes researchers at six other universities – Michigan, Arkansas, New Hampshire, Washington, Penn State and Cornell; as well as five federal research labs, the U.S. Department of Energy, USDA, and the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy.
“For dairy farmers it’s a very big deal because it is $10 million of research that the universities will provide better efficiency tools, soil management tools and other tools that farmers will benefit from not just for a year but for decades to come,” Tom Gallagher, CEO for the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy told DairyBusiness Radio. “This $10 million in terms of benefits to the bottom line on farm cost and productivity of farmers will pay dividends multiple times over the next several decades.”
The five-year grant is intended to find ways to identify dairy practices that reduce greenhouse gases and
dealing with intense weather patterns that are coming as a result of climate change. “Dairy farmers consider themselves the original environmentalist – and they are because their value is in their animals and their land,” he said.
Dairy farmers through their cooperatives and extension services will find out more information on how to participate in the research. Ultimately every dairy farmer will be able to pull down the information that comes out of the research over the years ahead.
“They’ve always done the best they can with the information that they acquire through experience and research, this will even move that further,” he said. “They need to become more and more productive, find more efficient ways to do business so they can reduce their cost and be more profitable.”
The importance of the dairy industry quantifying and understanding what their actual impact on the environment is means they will be able to protect the right to operate. The dairy checkoff completed a life cycle assessment for milk, cheese and whey covering green house gas emissions and water.
“That means from before the cow all the way to transporting the product to the consumer,” Gallagher said. “We have a scientifically sound and validated analysis of what our carbon footprint is. That allows us to set the record straight.”
If you would like more information about environmental stewardship efforts, go to www.usdairy.com.
May 6, 2013 — Dr. Greg Miller from the Dairy Research Council joins us on Monday’s DairyLine to discuss some new findings that reveal better dairy consumers tend to have lower risk of heart disease.
April 29, 2013 — The dairy industry has always been proud of being the original environmentalist. Tom Gallagher, CEO for the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack share the latest in this conference call on DairyLine Radio.
April 8, 2013 — California dairy producer Ray Prock shares how many farmers are now sharing and receiving information.
March 18, 2013 — Nebraska dairy producer Dan Rice talks about the benefits of saving energy through the help of the website: http://www.usdairy.com/saveenergy
