FAQ
What is the Dairy Soil & Water Regeneration project?
Dairy Soil & Water Regeneration is a key undertaking within the U.S. Dairy Net Zero Initiative, which is an essential first phase focusing on farm and in-field actions to achieve the dairy industry’s 2050 environmental stewardship goals. Those goals were developed through the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy.
The eight-year DSWR project, which began in 2021, is studying soil health and manure management and their effects on greenhouse gas reduction, water quality improvement and agronomic factors such as yield and forage quality. The research is being conducted on working dairies and research farms in major dairy-producing regions across the country.
Who is involved in the project?
DSWR was initiated by Dairy Management Inc. and the Soil Health Institute in collaboration with research partners from eight institutions including Cornell University in New York, Texas A&M AgriLife Research, University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of California Davis, University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Wisconsin-Platteville, University of Vermont, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service Northwest Irrigation and Soils Research in Kimberly, Idaho.
Why were these specific institutions chosen?
The institutions are known for their research capabilities, quality and commitment, and they represent different climates, soils and management practices in major dairy regions of the country.
Why is this project important?
While most dairy farmers today are considering climate solutions — like cover cropping, conservation tillage, best management practices for manure application and new manure-based fertilizers — limited research has been done on the impacts of soil health practices on greenhouse gas mitigation and water quality in dairy systems. Filling those gaps with quantifiable data to validate and verify practices will help farmers make decisions with greater confidence.
Will there be other benefits?
Yes, in a couple of important areas. The results will better inform ecosystem services markets, incentives and investments in dairy sustainability. Also, providing real-world dairy feed system-specific data will enhance modeling efforts and add scientific credibility to the dairy community’s sustainability efforts.
How is the research being conducted?
The work began with soil sampling to determine a baseline survey of soil health and carbon storage on dozens of dairies, with the objective of comparing participating farms and their specific practices to a regional “ideal” reference soil benchmark.
Now, field-scale studies are under way to help demonstrate the effects of soil health management systems at scale and as a “proof of concept.” Large-plot studies include replicated experiments evaluating the effects of tillage, cover cropping and manure-based products over five years.
By completion, the DSWR project will have aggregated thousands of soil, gas, water and plant samples using the same protocols to ensure consistent comparisons.
Why is an almond farm in California part of this dairy project?
Almond growers most commonly use synthetic nitrogen as their nitrogen source. In the project, researchers are studying how composted dairy manure, an organic fertilizer, compares to synthetic nitrogen in a high-value commodity crop. This holds the potential for new revenue opportunities for dairy farmers.
What will be done with the results?
The final results of the research project will be shared broadly with farmers, the scientific community and the public. At this early stage, farmers who participated in the initial phase of soil sampling are receiving individual reports of their farm’s baseline data, and learnings and best practices guidance are being shared with farmers and local crop advisers through webinars.
What has been learned so far?
Being about halfway through this project, researchers can’t yet draw definitive conclusions, but a glimpse of the early effects of soil health management systems on crop yield, greenhouse gas emissions, soil health and water quality is starting to emerge. In two examples of early trends, some research teams that have worked over three growing seasons found:
- Initial crop yields were higher on sites with commonly used farming practices compared to the soil health management systems, but these differences were smaller by the third year. Further DSWR research will help us gain an understanding of this trend.
- Emissions of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide were lower in the soil health management system plots fertilized with new manure-based products compared to the conventional plots where liquid dairy manure was used. We are relatively early in the research; therefore, this trend does not tell the whole story. DSWR is taking a whole-systems approach; other factors will need to be compared across all of our sites as we collect more data.
How is this project being funded?
DSWR is largely supported by the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research, which awarded $10 million toward this work, and matching funds from companies like Nestlé, Newtrient and Starbucks. Research sponsored by Dairy Management Inc. is funded by America’s dairy farmers and importers through the national dairy checkoff program. Certain research activities are ineligible to be funded by the checkoff program, and in such instances, checkoff funding may be used solely to facilitate the funding for such activities from other public and private sources.