AEM Study Highlights The Benefits Of Modern Dairy Production

The Association of Equipment Manufacturers, the National Milk Producers Federation, and Dairy Farmers of America unveiled a study on the benefits of modern dairy technologies.

“This study that we're talking about here was started through our connections and our group supported by AEM, the Association of Equipment Manufacturers representing us as dairy, hay, forage, and manure management equipment producers," said Chad Huyser is president of Lely North America.  "And then, we're fortunate to be able to partner with the National Milk Producers Federation as well as the Dairy Farmers of America, DFA, to jointly support bringing this information to light and sharing the good work that our dairy producers have been doing across the industry for the last several years, and more excitingly, what we think they can do in the future.”

So, why did these organization come together to perform this study?

“The opportunity we saw here was to build upon a lot of the great information and practices that we know our producers, each and every day, put into practice on their dairy operation, but we also looked at it across industry partners.  So, we as equipment manufacturers, other stakeholders, industry representative groups, and producer representative groups, we all have a very similar objective in that we want to highlight the great work that our producers are doing.  We said, ‘Well, why don't we collectively put our heads together on how we can leverage this more across our collective audiences than maybe independently?’," Huyser continued.  "So, it was exciting to bring these cross-industry segment partnerships together, and I think this is one of many things we might find an opportunity to do something similar as we go forward. But certainly, this information in the study is exciting and touches on all the good work that the producers are doing, the role that industry shareholders play, as well as us as equipment manufacturers, technology, and innovation companies provide as well.”

Huyser noted there were a variety of key takeaways from this study.

“If you look at the role of technology, equipment technology, has played, we've seen a tremendously positive impact on milk yield.  We believe the technology adoption can be attributed to a milk yield increase of about 6%.  We believe, and the data supports, that we've been able to reduce the feed usage by what's the equivalent of 3,200 NFL football stadiums full of feed.  We also see decreased use of land very much attributable to that decreased feed.  The land needed to grow the feedstocks for our dairy producers has been reduced by what we would compare to roughly the size of the state of Maryland.  And then, we see reductions in annual emissions. We believe that's been somewhere around taking the equivalent of four million cars off the road in that period of time, and we've been able to see reduced water usage, enough to supply in New York City for about two years.”

Dairy producers will find this report can help them make solid investment decisions for the future of their operations.

“A lot of what the study highlights some of those areas where we were able to see good increases or decreases depending on the data point over the last 15 years with the adoption of technology and other practice decisions," Huyser said.  "But equally, they're also looking for direction. How do they make that next step in their operation?  Where should they look at if they're going to make a future decision around adopting another type of technology or increasing their investment in a certain type of technology?  The reality is it's a financial decision in some respects for them because it also needs to make sure that it makes sense financially to help increase their bottom line that financial return.”

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