Nickel plays a critical role in nitrogen metabolism – especially in legumes and urea-fed crops.

As the conversation around carbon continues to evolve, the Professional Dairy Producers (PDP) held the Carbon Conference 3.0 in Madison, Wisconsin, at the end of January to inform dairy producers and allied industry of current strategies to turn carbon challenges into business opportunities.

When it comes to feeding the world, cattle have a starring role. At the same time, they play a part in the emission of methane, one of the three major greenhouse gases. Neither fact can be ignored.

Since the turn of the century, sustainability has been integrated into business strategies, giving birth to the triple bottom line – people, planet and profit. This has expanded how people think about sustainability. It is more than environment and includes economic and social or societal dimensions.   

“Today we have a third of the number of cows we had in 1960, and we’re producing more milk,” said Christine Baes of the University of Guelph during her keynote presentation at the 2024 Dairy Cattle Reproduction Council annual meeting. “That’s a pretty good sustainability story, but when you Google ‘sustainability and dairy cows,’ you see headlines about cow flatulence. Why is that?”