2022 March Board Book

If not used as dairy cow feed, a lot of the byproducts “would probably end up in the waste stream, potentially to a landfill where they would take up a massive amount of space and produce greenhouse gases as they rot,” says Mullinax.

Heguy agrees: “Instead of sending these byproducts that aren’t edible for humans to a landfill, using them for cattle feed provides an outlet for that potential waste to be turned into nutrient-dense products like meat and milk for human consumption.”

California’s Climate Change Scoping Plan has committed the state to reducing overall greenhouse gas emissions to 40 percent below 1990 levels by the year 2030.

The California Department of Food & Agriculture estimates that current dairy methane reduction efforts put the state’s dairy industry well on a path to achieving that target. In fact, more than half of the 40 percent reduction goal is already being achieved.

Although the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions reduced by upcycling these byproducts is still being measured, the overall impact on farmers across the state can’t be discounted.

“While we are still working to quantify the greenhouse gas emissions avoided from reducing acres for feed crop production and materials going to landfills, our research tells us that dairy’s use of byproducts as cow feed is a positive thing for dairy and the other ag industries as well as the state,” says Mullinax.