Implementation of Nutrient Management Planning on a Dairy Farm

Environmental policy and highly variable margins are requiring major changes on dairy farms. A case study was conducted on a commercial dairy farm over a 5-yr period to evaluate the impact of implementing methods designed to improve environmental and economic sustainability. Six Sigma (Pande et al., 2000) principles were utilized in conjunction with the Cornell University Nutrient Management Planning System (cuNMPS) to develop a system for precision farming to improve nutrient management. Critical components were the development and implementation of plans for herd nutrient management and crop, soil, and manure nutrient management. Implementation of this precision farming system resulted in increases in animal numbers (26%), milk per cow (9%), total milk sold daily (45%), and decreases in purchased feed cost (48%), feed cost per kilogram of milk sold (52%), and total manure N (17%) and P (28%) excretion. These results were attributed to improvements in forage production, quality, and storage (38% increase in proportion of diets homegrown) and precision feeding of high forage diets using the Cornell University Net Carbohydrate and Protein System (CNCPS) for diet formulation. Implementation of this approach on other farms requires management commitment and training. Training must include providing background information and tools for making continuous improvement in quality control and management and the use of root cause analysis. The adoption of the precision farming system by the case study farm management team has improved the business financially and decreased the accumulation of manure nutrients per hectare.