GDP and GRA share new research at World’s largest Climate Summit

Global Dairy Platform (GDP) and the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (GRA) last week reported on new research underway that examines how dairy cattle health improvement can positively impact greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. An update on this study was provided at a side event during the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP25) in Madrid. A video of the proceedings can be viewed here.

This new research is a follow-up to a report, “Climate Change and the Global Dairy Cattle Sector,” published earlier this year by the Food and Agriculture Organization and GDP, that identified improved cattle health as a key action to reduce GHG’s. The report highlighted that endemic cattle diseases have a negative effect on cattle production and productivity, and consequently, on GHG emissions intensity. This typically stems from increased mortality, reduced milk production, increased waste from treated milk that is discarded and lower reproductive performance.

Currently being conducted in Chile, Kenya and the United Kingdom, the study focuses on three specific health and productivity challenges, including reproductive performance (fertility), single agent infectious disease (BVDv) and multifactorial or management disease (mastitis) in relation to:
• The effect of proactive animal health management using Animal Health Improvement Measures (AHIM)) on GHG emissions
• The economic impact that making these improvements has on farmers
• How AHIM could be included in nationally determined contributions (NDCs)*
The study is being jointly funded by GDP and the New Zealand Ministry for Primary Industries in support of GRA.
A research progress update is available to download from the DSF website.

We would like to say a huge thanks to our contributors in the session at the COP:

Hayden Montogomery – Global Research Alliance
Brian Lindsay – Dairy Sustainability Framework
Jonnathan Statham - RAFT Solutions
Veronica Ndetu – Kenyan Ministry of Agriculture
Marta Alfaro – INIA Chile
Maggie Charnley – Defra UK
Donald Moore – Global Dairy Platform

*The Paris Agreement requests each country to outline and communicate their post-2020 climate actions, known as their NDCs.