Progress report for ENE23-188
Project Information
Problem or Opportunity and Justification
Efforts from dairy producers, due in part to improved regulations, policies, and programs, have made remarkable progress towards achieving Net Zero Emissions and moving closer to carbon neutrality, yet opportunities remain. The excretion of excessive nitrogen from cattle manure presents challenges when trying to minimize nitrogen volatilization and runoff in cropland and should be managed by feeding diets that are more precise in their nitrogen supply, particularly in the form of protein and amino acids, relative to the described cattle requirements. The results of this precision feeding are manyfold but allow for farmers to become better environmental stewards through a reduction in nitrogen excretion and improve farmer profitability by reducing excessive nitrogen feeds, dropping purchased feed cost while at least maintaining milk production and thereby improving profitability.
Solution and Approach
Dietary formulation models allow nutritionists to accurately quantify the supply of various nutrients in a diet so that they appropriately reconcile with the requirements of the cattle described. The CNCPS is a licensed invention of Cornell University and through various commercial software, it is used to formulate diets for about 70% of the dairy cattle in the Northeast US. With recently integrated updates to the CNCPS, diets can be formulated with a dietary crude protein as low as 14.5% of dry matter through nitrogen and amino acid balancing, reducing nitrogen excretion by up to 30% and maintaining the productivity of cattle fed. The model uses similar inputs as previous versions but makes use of more recently published data to update mathematical equations that more accurately reflect the biological processes that describe the nitrogen transactions within the animal. With these changes, we seek to provide robust training materials, in the form of workshops, factsheets, user guides, and case studies for dairy nutritionists so that they can maximize their potential to formulate diets that minimize excess nitrogen excreted, provide sustainable productivity in cattle, and improve profitability through a reduction in feed costs. This project will be an iterative process, as we hope to provide training, seek feedback from participants and update our guidelines to reflect the updated boundaries for nitrogen and amino acid feeding.
Using participation metrics from previous training, we anticipate 65 nutritionists from the NE SARE region will take action to educate themselves and advise farmers on reducing nitrogen feeding through improved formulation techniques and the use of CNCPS model updates. We will produce training material via workshops, user guides, and case study resources that will provide nutritionists with the knowledge of improved dietary formulation techniques on dairies and would result in a minimum of a 10% and up to 30% reduction in nitrogen (N) excretion into the environment depending on the dairy and forages available. All resources will be publicly accessible to improve exposure and adoption of these practices. Within the NESARE region, we expect 30 nutritionists residing in New York, 20 in Pennsylvania and 15 in Vermont will work with 1,600 farms and 260,000 cattle to adopt the updated CNCPS to formulate diets and optimize nitrogen and amino acid supply. We anticipate a reduction in N excretion between 70 and 110 grams per day. Conservatively, this is a reduction of 14,300 tons of N per year, equivalent to 182,300 tons of soybean meal worth $72M
The excretion of excessive nitrogen in cattle manure presents challenges when trying to minimize nitrogen volatilization on dairy farms, cropland, and waterways. Volatilization of ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates leads to the formation of nitrous oxide, a more potent greenhouse gas than its CO2 and CH4 counterparts (IPCC, 2007). Over half of all ammonia emissions in the US are sourced from domesticated farm animals, particularly due to the presence of ureases in feces which, when mixed with urine, convert urea into volatized products (Hristov et al., 2011). Further, nitrogen has been often considered the primary cause of eutrophication in marine ecosystems (Marchetti, 1994) and its reduced excretion would lead to increased water quality of major waterways. Given these reasons, efforts to account for and control the excretion of nitrogen from cattle can lead to the enhancement in the stewardship of resources to ensure sustainability and resilience by farmers and the nutritionists who feed their cattle, a direct component of the NE SARE outcome statement. One opportunity to reduce nitrogen excretion in cattle is to reduce the amount of protein feeding that is otherwise considered excessive relative to cattle requirements. According to regional survey data from Cooperative Extension Agencies, average crude protein feeding in lactating cattle diets ranges widely from 15.5-18.5% dry matter and is dependent on several key factors, including the availability of feedstuffs, feed management techniques, and the education of the nutritionist to utilize nitrogen and amino acid techniques when balancing diets. Using the average crude protein from the range of the region and assuming a dry matter intake of 27.5 kg, the average protein intake for lactating herds is 4750 grams. Further, this survey data suggested that these same diets could see a reduction in protein feeding between 10 and 30% without observing any appreciable drop in lactation performance, meaning a reduction between 475 and 1425 grams of protein could be possible under certain dietary conditions. By identifying opportunities for reduction through the development and dispersal of educational materials, nutritionists can work directly with farmers to make changes to their feeding strategies, regardless of their herd size, location within the NE SARE region, and current management strategies. The goal of this work is to provide both nutritionists and farms the means to improve their environmental stewardship, boost farmer profitability with a reduction in feed costs, and improve the overall quality of life for these farmers, their families, and the community surrounding them.
Project aims are to 1. identify common feeding and management practices that may lead to the overfeeding of protein and nitrogen 2. develop, disseminate, and store publicly accessed educational material through various media to inform both nutritionists and farmers on advancements in dietary formulation techniques and updates to nutrient supply modeling which can supersede previous practices and result in a reduction of these nutrients without any appreciable loss in animal productivity, and 3. maintain a continuing dialogue with these participants through surveys, workshops, and training sessions to allow for the identification of roadblocks and other constraints which may prevent the adoption of these practices.
Educational Approach
Engagement:
To increase awareness of this project, we have already initiated dialogue with practicing nutritionists at conferences and workshops in the region to stimulate interest. At the Cornell Nutrition Conference this month, our group announced that we were reconstructing our website to provide educational material for improving precision nutrition and diet formulation in cattle. Initial engagement for this specific project is projected to reach at least 100 practicing nutritionists in the NE SARE region, where these nutritionists will either access the educational material and/or participate in a workshop or training provided by this project. Further, we expect 65 of those nutritionists to make varying changes to their diets by adopting precision feeding techniques and reducing the amount of nitrogen fed to cattle. Recruitment of new participants will be encouraged throughout the project as we expect to gain popularity as we create more educational material and provide additional training opportunities. Workshop and in-person training participants will have access to online resources at their discretion and all who access these materials will be added to a listserv so that we may follow-up on their formulation practices, and they can provide feedback to us regarding our effectiveness with teaching. Online resources will include fact sheets and quick reference guides on the current and trending state of nitrogen feeding in the NE SARE region, a user guide, and a library of training videos that describe techniques to employ precision nutrient techniques. Participants will also be encouraged to provide feedback on new challenges they observe in the field so that we may develop future curricula. All materials will be made available to any interested dairy producers on our website, specifically targeting their nutritional management.
Learning:
The form of learning for this project assumes that the most actively participating nutritionists will be present for in person training and workshop sessions. We have learned that maximum adoption of new formulation practices and model formulation updates have been historically observed when nutritionists are actively engaged in person. As such, we intend to have 3 workshops in NY, 2 in PA, and 1 in VT in the first year, all of which will be held in strategic locations to maximize accessibility and attendance. Nutritionists will learn the importance of accurately describing the animals they feed and how mischaracterization can lead to the over or underestimation of their nutrient requirements. Education on the importance of feed chemistry and which nutrients are critical to analyze when trying to balance diets for nitrogen, protein, and amino acids. Once these concepts are understood, nutritionists will be taught how the updated CNCPS improves the ability to invoke precision feeding and will then be asked to formulate diets that have various feed management and price constraints associated with them. This approach is intended to leave the nutritionist with better confidence to feed diets that supply nitrogen and protein closer to animal requirements. The educational material stored on our website will also be part of this training and these resources will be available after the workshop has concluded. Upon completion of these workshops, nutritionists can receive certification.
Evaluation:
Assessment of project progress will occur in several steps throughout the project’s timeline. At the start of this project, nutritionists will be provided with the draft verification tool attached to this proposal so that we may assess current formulation practices. This work will be summarized and used, in conjunction with the reviews of the Project Advisory Committee, to establish an industry baseline and make any alterations to our educational material which will be posted online and used for workshops. Once workshops are established, we will be following up with participating nutritionists on an annual basis to assess their level of adoptability regarding protein feeding. To verify that our performance targets are achieved, we will ask those in attendance at the in-person training and workshops to calculate their average nitrogen feeding level and corresponding excretion of nitrogen. We will notify participants that our annual surveys will ask them the same questions so that we may assess trends in nitrogen feeding and the projects' impact on achieving the performance targets. These results will be summarized and published to all participating nutritionists so they may assess their impact on reducing nitrogen excretion, and improving farmer profitability and quality of life. We will actively encourage nutritionists to be critical of these educational materials and any feedback, along with insight from key individuals and the project advisory committee will all be leveraged to improve the existing curriculum and stimulate future educational materials.
Milestones
Milestone 1 (March – July 2023): Creation of a user’s guide, available both in hardcopy and electronically, detailing the steps to effectively formulate diets for cattle using formulation models. In addition to concepts which step through diet formulation and nitrogen balancing, this guide will include case studies, teaching users about the new features and capabilities of the updated version of the nutritional model.
This milestone is in progress. We are delayed on the rollout of the model which is delaying several of our proposed milestones. The programming company took many months longer than originally projected to finish the programming, and the cost was correspondingly increased, so much of our time the last 6 to 8 months has been working to raise the funds to get the programming completed and help push that effort along. The programming has been completed in the last month and we are now preparing to give access to the software developers to make their interface. We have been working on the documentation intermittently due to the need to stay focused on getting the program packaged up. However, we are now building on the user guide and will develop the case studies to accompany the user guide and model.
Milestone 2 (June-August 2023): Develop a curriculum with key individuals to be used while conducting in-person and virtual training sessions. Deliberation with the project advisory committee will also allow for a more robust and applied curriculum with the intent to maximize adaptability of precision nutrient practices. Materials for this curriculum will include at least 5 slide presentations, 3 quick reference fact sheets, and 12 how-to videos describing best-use practices for nitrogen balancing using nutritional modeling.
This milestone is in progress. Again, some of the focus was on fundraising and finishing the model the last few months, so we were delayed almost 8 months. To develop the curriculum, after meeting with some nutritionists and producers, we decided a survey of how nutritionists think about balancing around nitrogen and amino acids was warranted as it became more apparent, that many nutritionists were not overly focused on crude protein intake or nitrogen excretion unless it impacted the cost of the diet. The survey was developed and then sent to between 50 and 60 nutritionists and some dairy farmers in the Northeast. Here is a link to the survey: https://form.jotform.com/240155852329053
The survey was uploaded for review. The preliminary outcomes from the survey include the following :
- Four hundred and twenty herds, primarily located in New York (249), Vermont (71), and Pennsylvania (69), are represented, with an average herd size of 659 cattle.
- Conferences, meetings, and company-sponsored training are the primary settings where participants receive their continuing education. Consulting with peers, published research, and university-led workshops are secondary forms that participants make use of.
- Those working on this grant can disseminate information on updated protein-feeding techniques through these platforms, particularly in conference and university-led workshops.
- Most participants balance metabolizable energy and protein predictions in their diet formulation software, reducing the opportunity of overfeeding protein.
- Secondarily, a subset of participants balances metabolizable protein slightly higher than energy. Comments regarding this technique suggest that this technique was taught to participants to avoid any depression in lactation performance. The level at which protein is balanced over energy varies, with many expressing only a marginal percentage of overfeeding protein.
- The cost of preferred feed ingredients is the top constraint when trying to optimize protein feeding. Inventory constraints are stated as the secondary constraint which leads to overfeeding protein. These two constraints present an opportunity where work from this grant could present profitability calculators for certain ingredients that may appear cost-prohibitive. Further, there may be an opportunity to collaborate with agronomists to create educational material on the importance of planning for the desired inclusion rate of ingredients, particularly forages, and back-calculating the needed yield within a season and the number of acres needed to produce this biomass.
- Feeding management also appears to be a considerable constraint leading to the overfeeding of protein. Published materials and the dissemination of that information to feeders and other key farm employees should be prioritized to reduce this constraint.
- Not surprisingly, metabolizable protein supply is the top nutritional parameter when optimizing protein feeding in lactating dairy cattle, with over 80% of participants considering it a priority.
- Dietary non-structural carbohydrates (i.e. starch and sugar) content was considered secondarily important, with parameters that consider their fermentability (i.e. Rumen degradable starch and total fermentable carbohydrates) also considered a priority.
- Rumen degradable protein content was also highly considered when optimizing protein feeding, highlighting the importance of a healthy rumen and supply of microbial protein which would be synthesized from this protein.
- Individual amino acid supply was stated as a priority, but only after the previously stated parameters were considered. Most prefer relating amino acid supply to the energy content of the diet.
- Dietary and potentially degradable NDF was also considered a priority after the above were stated. Preferred targets suggest maximizing potentially degradable NDF in diets.
- Predicted rumen ammonia content ranged widely among participants, with a range of 115 to 160% of requirements. This range should be investigated further to understand differences in perceptions.
- Crude protein, soluble protein, and rumen peptide content were not rated highly as a priority in optimizing protein feeding, highlighting that participants are likely using more discrete parameters to estimate protein nutrition.
- Most participants formulate their diets for the average animal for all animal types, except for most participants target feeding ten percent over the average animal for the fresh and high lactating cow group.
- A small group of participants target the top ten percent of animals in the fresh cow group, highlighting the need to maximize nutrient availability for this group of animals.
- Participants believe they are meeting with the farm owner, feeder, and herd manager at their preferred frequency, with most participants meeting with these members every time they visit the farm.
- Crop managers meet quarterly and are in close agreement with participants' preferred frequency.
- Agronomists are met with more often than preferred; however, there is likely a missed opportunity to collaborate on planning for forage inventory based on desired inclusion rates.
- Participants prefer to meet with veterinarians and financial lenders more frequently than they currently do, suggesting the need to advocate for more collaborative meetings.
- Most participants either do not view or make little changes to their diets when considering predicted excretion measurements. Nitrogen and phosphorus excretion measurements are considered in diet decision-making making whereas methane excretion measurements are considered by the minority.
- Forage and non-forage sample collection occur every 3 and 7 weeks, respectively. Most sampling occurs from the nutritionist, with the feeders secondarily collecting samples. Most forage samples are submitted for NIR analysis while non-forage ingredients are split between wet chemistry analysis and NIR. This is likely due to some ingredients not having robust NIR equations for accurate predictions. Advocacy of these equations may help to rectify this situation.
- Many participants do not submit their samples for more discrete measurements, including protein digestibility and amino acid profiles. If these analyses are considered, it appear to be only for troubleshooting needs. More education and a cost-benefit analysis on these analyses may help elucidate the need to regularly perform these at a commercial lab.
Milestone 3 (August-September 2023): Publish a set of guidelines for nitrogen, phosphorous, and greenhouse gas emissions on a per cow and per unit of milk basis. Feedback from nutritionists and dairy farmers indicates that many do not know these ranges and expectations to implement change in their systems. These guidelines will be developed for various herd sizes, management styles, and financial constraints so that improvements can be made toward all dairies that seek to minimize nitrogen excretion and improve profitability.
This milestone is in progress due to the delay in finishing the software. We are starting to develop these materials in concert with some other industry needs related to greenhouse gas emissions and reductions in potential ammonia and nitrous oxide emissions.
Milestone 4 (October-November 2023): With the creation of several types of resource material comes a perceived demand for the creation of a repository on the CNCPS/Animal Science website to catalog and store them for future use. Publication of these resources on this platform will be accessible to the public at any time. This online repository will also include recorded lectures and a FAQ section that will be updated as new topics and information become available. These materials will be translated into Spanish to be shared with Spanish-speaking staff on dairy farms and will be stored in the publically accessible online repository for downloading and use by any interested party.
Again, this milestone is delayed, however, we are working to redesign the website to be more dynamic and easier to navigate for users. We want the website to be searchable within the CNCPS website and not the Cornell website so we are working to create a link within the CNCPS page to an external website and repository of teaching and educational materials.
Milestone 5 (December 2023- April 2024): First round of training sessions within the NE SARE region. At least three meetings in New York targeting at least 40 nutritionists and associated dairy farms, one meeting in Vermont targeting at least 10 nutritionists, and two meetings in Pennsylvania targeting at least 20 nutritionists and related dairy farms will be offered once materials are published. The first sessions should exceed our target for NY and provide a robust start for Vermont and Pennsylvania. Sessions will be recorded and used as part of the online repository. Feedback surveys will be developed and provided to attendees at training sessions to verify the project's effectiveness. Follow-up meetings will be scheduled based on participant feedback and will target specific topics that are needed for adoption, follow-through, and implementation. It is likely that other service providers, like nutrition companies or forage and genetics suppliers, will help support more meetings once we have initiated them.
Milestone 6: (May -June 2024): Publication of survey results that are procured by solicitation of workshop participants and those who access the online repository. This publication intends to inform the regional industry on how much protein is being fed and what steps are being taken to reduce its feeding and excretion. Subsequent surveys will be released annually, and their results published shortly after. Future surveys will pertain to current nutritionist feedback.
Milestone 7 (June 2024-June 2025) Develop a series of quarterly webinars for nutritionists, dairy producers, feed industry professionals, and any allied industry professionals including consumers who want to learn more about the role dairy nutrition can play in reducing the environmental impact of dairy production. This series will feature other scientists and industry professionals working in this area and will include topics such as whole farm systems and data covering farm-to-consumer environmental impacts.
Milestone 8 (July-September 2024): Develop materials that will target consumers and non-dairy practitioners that help educate them on dairy cattle nutrition’s role in environmental sustainability. Topics will include common dairy cattle feed ingredients and their point of origin in the human food sector, how the food system works and how cattle can be part of the solution to reducing the environmental impact of human food production., and current and emerging technologies to improve dairy cattle efficiency. We will conduct another series of meetings with nutritionists in NY (30), VT (15), and PA (20) to follow up on training, implementation, and troubleshooting.
Milestone 9 (July 2024 -April 2025): Work with feed suppliers to encourage the accounting of nitrogen and phosphorous in purchased feed delivered to a dairy farm, annually. The purpose is to quantify how much of each element is delivered to the farm so it may be reconciled against the amount being fed. Data from this accounting would be summarized and results would be published in a format for nutritionists, farmers, allied industry professionals, and consumers to easily access and interpret.
Milestone 10 (May-June 2025): Publication of follow-up survey results. Follow-up surveys will be provided to those who participated in the workshops described in Milestone 5 and all who accessed the online repository. Our intent with these results is to assess any developing trends toward the reduction of nitrogen feeding, quantify any reductions in nitrogen feeding, and describe any roadblocks that may prevent these nutritionists or farmers from making these improvements. Given the use of the CNCPS, we fully expect continued follow-up after the project ends.
Performance Target Outcomes
Performance Target Outcomes - Service Providers
Target #1
65
Using participation metrics from previous training, we anticipate 65 nutritionists from the NE SARE region will take action to educate themselves and advise farmers on reducing nitrogen feeding through improved formulation techniques and the use of CNCPS model updates.
1600
260,000 cattle
Performance Target Outcomes - Farmers
Target #1
1600
We anticipate a reduction in N excretion between 70 and 110 grams per day. Conservatively, this is a reduction of 14,300 tons of N per year, equivalent to 182,300 tons of soybean meal worth $72M
260,000 cattle