April’s food for thought…

• Beef or dairy – which tastes better?
• New European initiative for increased cow and calf welfare
• Earth losing fresh water and may have hit irreversible tipping point due to climate change
• UK Project Launched to Promote Sustainable Dairy Farming

Beef or dairy – which tastes better? – from eDairy News. Meat sourced from dairy cows is routinely used for human consumption in many countries overseas, so why isn’t it so popular in Australia?  Professor Jane Quinn, a professor of veterinary physiology at Charles Sturt University, has challenged some assumptions after conducting research on dairy beef.  Read the article

New European initiative for increased cow and calf welfare – from Dairy Global.  A new initiative has been launched by 14 European countries involving more than 25 organisations to introduce a new initiative to allow dairy calves to spend more time with their mothers.  Cow-calf separation is a significant animal welfare challenge and an ethical concern for many European consumers. Now, the TransformDairyNet project is designed to enable dairy farmers and others in the industry to learn from existing Cow-Calf Contact dairy farmers who have adopted systems where calves stay with their mothers for three to four months, which the article suggests promotes natural behaviours, animal health and welfare.  Read the article

Earth losing fresh water and may have hit irreversible tipping point due to climate change – from ABC News.  According to a new study, the Earth is getting drier and may have hit a tipping point for how much water is stored in soil because of climate change.  So great is the decline in soil moisture that it has outpaced Greenland’s melting ice sheets in its contribution to sea level rise and changes to the wobble in Earth’s rotation. Read the full article

UK Project Launched to Promote Sustainable Dairy Farming – from AFBI News.   AFBI in collaboration with a consortium of leading dairy research and industry organisations, recently announced the launch of the UK Dairy Carbon Network project.  This pioneering initiative aims to support the dairy industry to significantly reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions through the deployment of innovative mitigation measures. Read the article