Wednesday, 06 November 2024 07:55

Sustainability dominates dairy summit

Written by  Tim Fulton
Attendees at the IDF Dairy Summit sample French cheeses in Paris last month. Attendees at the IDF Dairy Summit sample French cheeses in Paris last month.

To Kiwi ears, an international conference that talks about a "just and fair transition" to sustainable dairy sounds like a clarion call for better access to valuable markets. 'Just and fair' means more to the world than opening up borders to big exporters like NZ. Tim Fulton reports.

This year's International Dairy Federation (IDF) world summit in Paris covered innovations, best practice and responses to economic, social, geopolitical and climate crises.

The common denominator was 'carbon footprint'. Jean-Michel Javelle, president of French dairy co-operative, Sodiaal, said no agribusiness company or leader could now imagine building their operations or a strategy without "resilient supply chains".

Nor could they fail to address environmental issues: "financial and non-financial now go hand in hand."

Agriculture was intimately linked to ecosystem health and animal welfare, Javelle said.

Farmers felt climate change as much as anyone, seeing changes in growing seasons or damage from extreme weather, which disrupt cows' rumination and milk production.

Since 2019, Sodiaal had been working with farmers to measure the carbon footprint of their operations. The co-op used telemetrics in its trucks to reduce emissions and had launched more than 500 projects to cut emissions at processing sites. The aim was a 20% reduction in emissions by 2030.


Read More


Making change meant modifying herd diets, which represented a significant cost and a potential risk to agricultural yields.

To offset this, Sodiaal had introduced a "transitions platform" raising funds from clients, banks and other partners. "The dual objective is to reduce the environmental footprint while improving working conditions for farmers," Javelle said.

It was clear from IDF that the European Union will continue to 'support' its producers to meet emissions targets. Kiwis call it protectionism. Europeans call it maintaining a vibrant and competitive industry.

Pascal Le Brun, president of French milk producers association, CNIEL, said France was notable for the diversity of its agricultural models. This allowed it to adapt to the specific conditions of each region, from mountainous areas to fertile plains. On average, a French dairy farm had 70 cows and the country was unusual in Europe for relatively small herds over large areas.

Running a "polyculture-livestock model", many French farmers grew multiple crops and animals together at the same time. Le Brun said this model gave farmers greater autonomy in terms of feed, fertiliser and energy - creating good environmental and economic balance. However, French farmers had to be sure it would be effective in the face of climate change, especially water scarcity.

Modernisation of facilities, production and processing tools, particularly through robotization and the use of decision-support tools was essential.

The improvements would not only help address labour shortages but further reduce France's carbon footprint, Le Brun said.

Projections by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisatin and the OECD were for annual dairy consumption to rise by 1.4 to 1.8% over the next decade.

The rise would be sharpest outside of Europe, mainly in Africa and Asia, where rising purchasing power and changing dietary habits were growing demand.

More like this

Miraka CEO quits

Māori-owned milk processor Miraka is looking for a new chief executive following the resignation of Karl Gradon last week.

Kiwi farmers are the best

OPINION: Pre-Parliament, I was involved with the International Dairy Federation. I attended firstly business meetings at the annual conference, then later, board meetings as a sitting board member.

Top dairy CEO quits

Arguably one of the country's top dairy company's chief executives, Richard Wyeth has abruptly quit Chinese owned Westland Milk Products (WMP)

Bovaer's fate

OPINION: The fate of methane inhibitor Bovaer in NZ farming is still up in the air.

Featured

Farmer input needed to combat FE

Beef + Lamb New Zealand (B+LNZ) is calling on livestock farmers to take part in a survey measuring the financial impact of facial eczema (FE).

Editorial: Escaping Trump's wrath

OPINION: President Donald Trump's bizarre hard line approach to the world of what was once 'rules-based trade' has got New Zealand government officials, politicians and exporters on tenterhooks.

Wool pellets to boost gardens

With wool prices steadily declining and shearing costs on the rise, a Waikato couple began looking for a solution for wool from their 80ha farm.

National

Machinery & Products

Alpego eyes electric power harrow

Distributed by OriginAg in New Zealand, Italian manufacturer Alpego recently showed its three metre Alysium electric power harrow at the…

New seed drill tech coming

Incorporating Vaderstad's latest seed drill technology, the Proceed V 24, is said to improve precision and increase planting efficiencies for…

» Latest Print Issues Online

The Hound

Waffle man

OPINION: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon sometimes can't escape his own corporate instinct for evasion, and in what should have been…

Banks on notice

OPINION: Shane 'Matua' Jones, crusader against all things woke, including "woke banks", couldn't have scripted it better when his NZ…

» Connect with Rural News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter