Dairy feed's amenability to conservation ag is focus of latest documentary episode

Dairy feed production is particularly amenable to conservation agricultural practices, according to four dairy operators featured in Part 4 of the Conservation Agriculture documentary series, released today on the Conservation Agriculture Systems Innovation website. (The video is also posted below.) Planting equipment for production of winter small grains like wheat and triticale and summer corn and sorghum are readily available and production processes have been widely used.

In dairy feed production, conservation agriculture stands to cut tillage costs by $70 per acre, and reduce fuel use by 50 percent and dust emission by 60 percent.

“We’re producing more crops with less input,” says Hanford dairy farmer Dino Giacomazzi in the video. “That’s a win-win.”

Giacomazzi said one of the most important things he has learned in converting from conventional farming to conservation agriculture is that it’s a whole new system and requires a whole new way to think about farming.

Farmers willing to share their experiences with conservation agricultural systems will be part of the annual Twilight Conservation Agriculture field day, to be held at 4 p.m. Sept. 13 at the UC West Side Research and Extension Center, 17353 W. Oakland Ave. in Five Points. To register, go to: http://ucanr.edu/TwilightRegistration. For more information about the field day, see the field day announcement.

View the video here:

 

Earlier episodes of the Conservation Agriculture Systems Innovation documentary series are available on the table of contents.

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