Development of a Practical Approach for Reducing Imported Nutrients on Dairy Operation Through Precision Feed Management at a Watershed Scale

New York, as a Chesapeake Bay Watershed state, is developing a Tributary Strategy to meet sediment and nutrient load allocations developed by the Chesapeake Bay Program. A significant source of nutrients in the Susquehanna River watershed is the 262,000 dairy cattle that inhabit agricultural operations in the region. The two nutrients of greatest concern are nitrogen and phosphorous. Nutrient management planning on dairy farms with a focus on nutrient source reduction is vital to the economic sustainability of farms as well as improvement in water quality in the region. Significant reductions in nutrient imports can only be realized through more precise management at every step along the farm system. The purpose of this project is to engage dairy producers to implement precision feeding and forage management practices on their operations. Shifts that occur in both nutrient excretion from individual animals and in Farm-level mass balance will be measured. It is believed that nutrient excretion can be decreased by 15-30 percent and Farm-level mass balance by 30-40 percent on many dairy farms in this region.