Mark Eisler's presentation from the Sustainable Food Trust's meeting: What role for grazing livestock in a world of climate change and diet-related disease?

1. Spilt Milk Worth Crying Over?
Mark Eisler
Chair in Global Farm Animal Health
School of Veterinary Sciences
University of Bristol

2. Planetary boundaries
People and the Planet.
Royal Society 2012

3. “Global PIN Code”
Global human population in billions:
Americas . Europe . Africa . Asia
Now: 1 . 1 . 1 . 4 (7 billion)
2050+: 1 . 1 . 4 . 5 (11 billion)
Increase mainly in Africa
Hans Rosling, Karolinska Institute

4. Holstein imported into Africa
and Asia in huge numbers
30+ litres milk per day
Bred for intensive management
Bred for temperate climate
‘World’s least fertile farm animal’
Example of species/genotypes
not suited to the environment
Poor resistance to heat, humidity, tropical diseases, parasites
Extra costs: Disease-free environment; extra drugs
Not grazed: cut-and-carry fodder; buy expensive feed
Production lower than expected,
Expenses outweigh extra income?
The Perfect Cow?

7. Spilt milk worth crying over?
≈4.2m tonnes of food wasted per year in UK
Milk ranks third of all foodstuffs
420,000 tonnes of avoidable dairy and egg
waste in UK 2012
Cost: £780m
A throwaway commodity?
Quested, T., Ingle, R. & Parry, A. Household Food and Drink Waste in the
UK. Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), 2013.

9. 44p per Litre44p 39p per Litre

10. All Hail the Holstein!
Vanishing profit margins
➢‘Darwinian’ selection
Dairy industry super-efficient
Fewer, larger herds
Minimised labour costs
High-yielding Holstein
10,000+ litre yields
The perfect cow

11. The Perfect Cow?
Infertility
Lameness
Mastitis
Metabolic disease
Digestive disorders
Infectious disease
Routine antibiotic and hormone treatments
…the perfect storm?

12. All Hail the Holstein!
Prodigious yield requires energy and protein
➢ far beyond levels available from pasture
Consumes valuable potential human food
➢ more than own body weight of cereals in a single lactation
Ill-equipped to digest a grain-rich diet:
➢ sub-acute ruminal acidosis, displaced abomasum etc.
Concentrate feed uses artificial fertiliser
Cereal diet negates ruminant’s evolutionary
advantage:
➢ ability to digest forage, green waste and by-products of low
nutritional value to species such as pigs, poultry or humans

13. Dairy Dilemma
Pareto Principle 80:20 Rule?
20% more yield
80% more N
80% of yield
20% of N

14. ‘Modern dairy systems producing 24% of the manure,
43% of CH4, and 56% of N2O per billion kg of milk
compared with equivalent milk from historical dairying.’

15. Feeding, production, and efficiency of Holstein-Friesian,
Jersey, and mixed-breed lactating dairy cows
in commercial Danish herds
T. Kristensen, C. Jensen, S. Østergaard,
M.R. Weisbjerg, O. Aaes and N.I. Nielsen
J. Dairy Science 98, 263–274 (2015)
Estimation of efficiencies relating to energy, production, and environment, based on
commercial herd data, can be an important aid in daily herd management.
A strong positive correlation between the evaluated efficiency measures and
between production and efficiency in general indicates that it is possible to increase
productivity while decreasing the environmental load from dairy farming. Only a
minor part of the variation in efficiency between herds could be explained by
differences in the nutrient or roughage contents of DMI. This might be because data
are based on herds participating in intensive feed planning and feed control.
Holstein cows have a higher production and intake but lower efficiency than
Jersey, when compared at the average production level of the commercial
herds.

16. Mega Dairies?
Nocton Dairies scraps super dairy
plans
16 February 2011 | By Ben Briggs, Alistair Driver
NOCTON Dairies have scrapped plans to set up
the UK’s biggest dairy herd, blaming the
Environment Agency for the decision. …3,770 cow
dairy farm at Nocton Heath, Lincolnshire. The sole
reason for this decision is the response of the
Environment Agency, which has maintained its
objection to the proposal.

17. Mega Dairies?
Nocton Dairies scraps super dairy
plans
16 February 2011 | By Ben Briggs, Alistair Driver
NOCTON Dairies have scrapped plans to set up
the UK’s biggest dairy herd, blaming the
Environment Agency for the decision. …3,770 cow
dairy farm at Nocton Heath, Lincolnshire. The sole
reason for this decision is the response of the
Environment Agency, which has maintained its
objection to the proposal.

18. Concerns:
Welfare
• Expression of natural behaviour
Animal & human health
Antibiotics and hormones
GHG emissions
N & P cycles
Local environmental pollution
Sustainability
Mega Dairies

19. Mega Dairies?

20. La ferme des mille vaches suspendue
à la décision du tribunal

21. The Trouble with TMR
Living with environmental uncertainty
21
Roughly half of Brazil's Cerrado
(≈250m acres) has been cleared
for agriculture

23. Ecosystem Benefits of Pasture
over Monoculture

25. Carbon emissions
Management of cow
manure, slurry and dirty
water
Water requirements
Reduce, reuse and
recycling of resources
Soil nutrients
Feed and forage
Bedding
Fuel
Pollution and pathogen
control
Recycling
Biodiversity and
conservation
Not so Bad?
Nocton Dairies Sustainability Statement

26. Welfare standards
The needs of a cow
Cow environment
Building design
Outside access
Temperature control
and ventilation
Cubicles and bedding
Calving
Slurry removal
Milking
Handling facilities
Youngstock and calves
Food and Water
Training
Health & Biosecurity
Not so Bad?
Nocton Dairies Welfare Statement

27. Land Sharing
Land Sparing

28. A. Arneth, C. Brown and M.D.A. Rounsevell. Global models of human decision-making for land-based
mitigation and adaptation assessment. Nature Climate Change 4, 550–557 (2014).
Agent Based Model