Dairy Farmer Concerns about Nitrogen Losses from Their Farms
There are three reasons why dairy farms in the northeast should be concerned about reducing excess nitrogen on their farms.
- The increased number of lawsuits due to emissions and odors. In the northeast, we have a large rural-urban interface; this means that there are a lot of rural residences in farming communities that are becoming less tolerant of odor and water quality concerns with farms in the neighborhood.
- The pressure to reduce excess N will lead to increased enforcement of the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act. The PRO-DAIRY “Manager” insert of the April 2004 issue (www.ansci.cornell.edu/prodairy/manager.html) indicated the EPA, which has rule making and enforcement authority under the Clean Air Act of 1990, established requirements for businesses that emit priority air pollutants such as ammonia, hydrogen sulfide and dust above threshold levels. Requirements vary from reporting to federal, state, and local agencies up to operating under a permit. Preliminary estimates suggest that dairies between 200 and 500 cows may need to report ammonia emissions from the farmstead facilities and those with 2500 to 4000 cows or above could need an operating permit.
- To take advantage of the economic benefits of feed and fertilizer savings and potential production improvements through more efficient use of N on farms.
We have conducted several studies on dairy farms to evaluate the potential for reducing mass nutrient balances through precision feed management. Implementing precision feeding has typically reduced N and P excretion by about 1/3, with feed costs being reduced by $50 to $150/cow (Klausner et al., 1998; Wang et al., 2000; Cerosaletti, 2003; Tylutki et al., 2004; Cerosaletti et al., 2004). Most of the feed savings has been as a result of reducing protein levels in the ration through precision feeding.
