The Sustainable Dairy project is enhancing research efforts related to the carbon impact of various management practices in dairy production systems common in the Great Lakes Region. Extension and outreach activities are being designed to share this information with producers, policy makers, other researchers, and consumers so that all stakeholders can make decisions informed by sound science.

The extension team of the Sustainable Dairy Project is very active in existing extension efforts in their respective fields and geographic area. Materials developed through this project will be integrated into existing programs such as the Wisconsin Crop Management Conference, the Pennsylvania Crops Conference, The Pennsylvania State University Extension Dairy Team’s conferences and on-line newsletters, the Northeast Region CCA Annual Training, the Midwest Manure Summit, and Cornell University’s Pro-Dairy programming such as the Herd Health and Nutrition Conference.

In addition to supporting ongoing projects the extension team is also identifying and aiming to fill any outreach needs. The extension team will be working with the Innovation Center for US Dairy and the University of Wisconsin Center for Dairy Profitability to produce and distribute several user support tools based on the research and modeling efforts completed during the project. These tools will enable producers to easily input production information in order to obtain information that can guide management choices for improved sustainability and profitability.

In addition to the production of various extension materials and events the team will also be conducting a producer survey. This effort is being led by In addition to the production of various extension materials and events the team will also be conducting a producer survey. This effort is being led by Dr. Ken Genskow from the Unversity of Wisconsin-Madison.

Extension materials related to the project are periodically updated and can be accessed Here [link to Resources area of this website] and on the Animal Agriculture and Climate Change community of practice on eXtension.org

For more information please contact the Extension Team Lead Becky Larson, University of Wisconsin – Madison, ralarson2@wisc.edu.