It was, until recently, considered highly unlikely that California’s dairy farms would come anywhere close to meeting the state’s mandated goals for methane gas reduction by the 2030 deadline. Now, it’s looks do-able!
And it’s do-able thanks to a new three-point plan now in full swing, which has been showing signi-ficant success, cutting methane emissions from the Cali dairy industry by about 5 million metric tons annually.
Ambitious goal
In 2016, the California State Legislature set an overall goal of reducing Dairy Farm livestock methane emission levels to a point 40 percent below 2013 levels by 2030. The state is the only jurisdiction which set such a target in law in 2016.
The goal – and the fact that the state is more than 2/3 of the way to it – show what can be accom-plished when legislators, regulators and innovators get off their butts and work earnestly toward a solution. And it’s all the more impressive when you consider that California’s dairy sector leads the nation in milk and dairy foods production.
What they’re doing
Supported by the Dairy Digester Research and Development Program (DDRDP) and the Alternative Manure Management Program (AMMP), these efforts indisputably demonstrate California’s leadership in achieving significant climate goals while still maintaining a thriving dairy sector. Doubling down on benefits, Cali’s dairy farms are also creating renewable energy to help reduce their reliance on fossil fuels.
Key strategies…
The key strategies being employed to fight methane may sound simple. But it’s the fact that they’re so simple, yet work so well that’s truly remarkable:
- Methane Capture and Utilization: With 168 operational dairy digesters and about 75 more in deve-lopment, these systems capture methane from manure and convert it to renewable energy, achieving reductions of approximately 2.53 million metric tons of CO2e annually.
- Methane Avoidance: Over 128 alternative manure management projects, including manure separ-ators and composting systems, have been implemented, yielding an estimated reduction of 254,000 metric tons of CO2e.
- Milk Production Efficiency and Herd Attrition: Leveraging advancements in animal nutrition and care, farmers produce more milk with fewer cows, leading to an estimated reduction of 2.13 million metric tons of CO2e.
Huge benefits through sharing
Now… Step back and consider that California is just one of 50 states, in just one of almost 200 organ-ized countries in the world. It boggles the mind to start calculating how much methane could be removed from the dairy production system globally if the technology and procedures developed by the DDRDP and AMMP were shared with the world.
My take
So, California, get out there and do that! And the sooner the better!
As a side thought, I wonder if the DDRDP and the AMMP have stopped to consider what a lucrative side-gig it could be, to make and sell the equipment and associated supplies and training needs of their methane reduction system to the world?
~ Maggie J.