Updates from the DSF Communities of Interest

Animal Care - January marked the fifth anniversary of the Animal Care Community, a milestone celebrated with a meeting focused on a pioneering UK initiative: the GB Dairy Cow Lameness Manifesto. Speaker, Dr Owen Atkinson, explained how this collective commitment from across the British dairy industry aims to reduce lameness in GB dairy herds nationwide to less than 5% over the next 20 years. By incrementally reducing lameness, the Manifesto sets out to improve cow welfare, lower the carbon footprint, and strengthen the social license of dairy farming. Attendees also explored the current approaches to visually scoring cow mobility and discussed promising new technologies on the horizon that could automate this process in future. Click here to explore the Manifesto.

Biodiversity & Nature - DSF is delighted to announce the next meeting of this Community of Interest, to be facilitated by Dr Belinda Margetts of DairyNZ, a DSF aggregating member. Dr Margetts brings two decades of scientific expertise and passion for ecology to the role. The community will meet on 23rd February 20h00-21h00 (UK time), featuring Ashley Montcalm from Arla Foods. Ashley, Arla’s content lead for nature and biodiversity, will share valuable lessons from the company’s Biodiversity and Soil Health Survey and highlight the challenges of implementing nature-positive practices on a large scale. She’ll also outline Arla’s current FarmAhead™ Incentive and Nature Strategy Framework, discussing how they intend to measure biodiversity on farm.

GHG Emissions - we’re pleased to announce that Emily Bishop, Senior Vice President of Social Responsibility at the Innovation Center for US Dairy, has stepped into the role of facilitator for the GHG Emissions Community of Interest, taking over from Eric Hassel. The DSF extends its heartfelt thanks to Eric for his thoughtful leadership and dedicated facilitation over the past two years and wishes him every success in his future endeavours.

Why don’t you get involved in the Communities of Interest and accelerate change through knowledge sharing with other DSF members? The DSF Secretariat can get you sorted or see information in the DSF Members Area of the website.