How to navigate sustainability policies with genetics

Farmers understand that the world needs more future-friendly farming practices and are willing to put in the effort for a more sustainable future. However, increasingly rigid regulations to tackle emissions by cutting livestock numbers put livelihoods and food production at stake.

There are alternative solutions, like using smaller, more feed-efficient breeds, but are governments prepared to listen?

This is a delicate subject that needs a controlled debate from all sides, and a compromise needs to be reached rather than policies not offering farmers any wiggle room.

Two cattle breeders with over 30 years of experience bring you their knowledge on the subject and some measures you can take to future-proof your herd.

Walter Liebregts, a Dutch farmer and owner of Koole & Liebregts, and Peter Larson, Senior Breeding Manager for VikingJersey at VikingGenetics.

Many European farmers fear governments will target larger farms closer to the natural areas and ask them to reduce stock numbers or retire.

“If the farm has no successor, the government may buy your herd and your land and turn it into nature. That's the first step. This is not bad since many of these farmers didn't have a successor anyway. So, for the personal life of the farmer, it's perhaps a welcome idea,” says Walter.

However, the problem for many in the sector is that this could lead to additional animal production rights being removed from the market.

One way to adapt to stricter emission regulations is switching to a smaller, more efficient breed like VikingJersey. Not everyone wants to steer away from larger, high-production Holstein cows, but smaller breeds produce less emissions and have become more profitable as time goes on.

 “I've been working with the Jerseys all through my career, and they prove they are more efficient when it comes to emissions than other breeds,” says Peter.

“In Denmark, we started out measuring livestock units 20 years ago. Livestock units were based on emissions of nitrogen, showing that the Jerseys were 20% more efficient than bigger cows. Today, our restrictions are not only based on nitrogen emission, and they consider several other environmental factors,” he adds.

Restrictions nowadays give farmers licenses to produce based on their emission levels. These relate to land per cow, space in bonds per cow, and how much manure can be spread per hectare, among other things.

Crossbreeding is also a solution towards better sustainability. Like smaller breeds, crossbred cows boost feed efficiency, reducing methane emissions. Three-way crossbreeding systems, like the VikingGoldenCross, are helping farmers worldwide move closer to their emissions targets.

VikingGoldenCross is a 3-breed rotational crossbreeding program combining VikingHolstein, VikingRed, and VikingJersey. Crossing the three VikingGenetics breeds gives farmers healthy, fertile cows ideal for cows for pasture-based production.

"With the GoldenCross, the feed efficiency is around 15% better than a pure Holstein," says Walter.

 "Feed efficiency on a dairy has very much to do with the number of youngstock you need for the milk production. If you have a longer lifetime for your production cows, let's say a year longer, it saves you a lot of youngstock," he ends.