The Potential for Biochar to Enhance Sustainability in the Dairy Industry
January 28, 2021 • 12:00 – 1:30pm EDT
The dairy industry is facing increased pressure to reduce impacts on air and water quality, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions such as methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2) is increasingly urgent. Regulations are increasingly causing farmers to build larger facilities or buy more land to handle excess nutrients. At the same time, the industry has been hit hard by a number of different challenges.
New methods of reducing emissions on dairy farms include the production and use of biochar, a solid material obtained from the thermochemical conversion of biomass in an oxygen-limited environment. Biochar can be used as a product itself or as an ingredient within a blended product, to improve soil properties and/or resource use efficiency, to remediate and/or protect against environmental pollution, and as an avenue for GHG mitigation (IBI 2013). Biochar also offers the possibility of large-scale carbon sequestration which may lead to increased revenues for farmers of all types as carbon marketplaces begin to embrace biochar as a carbon removal product.
This webinar is a review of a paper published last year of the same name by Kathleen Draper & Shannan Sweet and funded by the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy. Shannan will highlight some ways that biochar is being or could be incorporated on dairy farms to improve overall economic and environmental impacts. While additional benefits and uses could accrue to the entire supply chain for milk, cheese any other milk-based products, this paper focuses solely on the dairy farm itself. It reviews different entry points for biochar from its use as a feed additive, to feed storage component, bedding additive, or manure management component. It also discussed converting manure directly into biochar as a manure management strategy that could reduce storage costs and GHG emissions.
In addition to an overview of how biochar production and use can benefit the dairy industry, we will hear from some biochar production technology vendors currently working in this space.
Free to IBI Members & Innovation Center for US Dairy invitees or $40 for non-members
For more information or if you have any questions about registration please email Caroline Peat at cpeat@ttcorp.com.
Also, check out the IBI website: https://biochar-international.org/webinars-list/