Creating Nutrient Sustainability Indicators For Dairies Nationwide

Abstract

This paper was presented at the 2018 Cornell Nutrition Conference. For more information, please visit ansci.cals.cornell.edu/CNC.Many industries have, in recent years, focused on development of Sustainability Performance Indicators, reflecting the desire by food processing companies to implement a profitable agricultural supply chain that protects the environment through adoption of sustainable practices. Such indicators should be fairly easy to derive, be verifiable, be meaningful, and responsive to change in management over time. With the nutrient mass balance assessment, we present a farmer-focused approach of a sustainability stamp for three key nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium). We will present 10 years of results for New York dairies that participated in the development of this approach, and compare this to developments in other states and internationally.Department of Animal Scienc