2024 September Board Book

“We gathered information from dairy digester develop ers and compiled the total amount of renewable natural gas and electricity that is currently being produced on California dairies,” explains Boccadoro. “The result was more than 3,000 renewable natural gas buses and more than 12,000 electric vehicles that could be run daily from the energy—or a total of 15,000 vehicles.” This exciting finding was picked up by many major news sources throughout California including the Orange County Register, The San Diego Union-Tribune, and the LA Daily News. Messages such as these are important to share widely as they help to inform the public about dairy’s role in methane emissions reductions while at the same time showcasing California dairy industry’s leadership. CDRF’s support of Dairy Cares communications, expanded with matched funding opportunity “CDRF’s funding support for Dairy Cares was leveraged by additional funds from the California Cattle Council,” explains Boccadoro. This allowed for “a total of 10 one- week-long ad runs in CalMatter’s ‘WhatMatters’ daily email newsletter. The ads each linked to up-to-date webpages with timely messages about California’s planet-smart dairy efforts.” Dairy Cares staff made several significant public presen tations in 2023. These included a dairy industry briefing on methane reduction efforts for the California Senate Climate Working group in March, moderating two sessions on feed strategies to reduce enteric emissions at the State of the Science Summit in May, and a presen tation for the Governor’s office in September. Much of 2023 was spent coordinating the fourth California Dairy Sustainability Summit, which took place on March 26, 2024, at UC Davis. The 2024 summit was a hybrid meeting, increasing opportunities for engagement between producers, academ ics, and lawmakers.

DAIRY CARES PROMOTES CALIFORNIA’S DAIRY EMISSIONS REDUCTIONS IN MAJOR NEWS OUTLETS SAVES CALIFORNIA DAIRY PRODUCERS MORE THAN $6M ANNUALLY THROUGH CVDRMP PROGRAM

Dairy Cares provided ongoing communi cation support to CDQAP, assisting with creation of event flyers and publication of monthly CDQAP newsletters. Dairy Cares remains committed to helping the industry address methane emission challenges, fast approaching water regulations, and rising labor and energy costs Boccadoro shared that Dairy Cares will continue “to gather more information about how California dairy is working to nourish and improve lives through its commitment to communities and sustainability.”