Accelerating Livestock Innovations for Sustainability

Dairy systems monitoring is a powerful tool to inform dairy producer decision making, and model nutrient use and greenhouse gas emissions on farms. Cornell is a leading developer of data collection and management systems to support monitoring. 

The ability of dairy cattle to efficiently harness nutrients for milk production is key to reducing methane intensity and boosting dairy profitability. Working with international partners, we help smallholder dairies in South Asia and Africa improve their cattle and buffalo nutrition.

Feed additives that reduce ruminal methanogenesis is a fast approach to lower methane emissions from dairy production systems. By defining the mode of action for these additives and accelerating efficacy and safety testing, we encourage their development and adoption.

Manure from livestock agriculture represents a source of greenhouse gases such as methane and nitrous oxide, and nutrient waste such as phosphorus and nitrogen. We are committed to identifying farm management practices that best mitigate these negative environmental outcomes.

Monitoring and measuring methane emissions from cattle are part of the Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification plan required by any approach that reduces enteric methane emissions. We are strategically positioned to validate methane sensor technologies, including their protocols of use.

The Northeast dairy industry has made significant progress in a range of sustainability measures between 1971 and 2024, especially greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, according to “Fifty years of environmental progress by U.S. dairy” published June 2024 in the Journal of Dairy Science.