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| Miner Institute Dairy Facilities |
The Miner Institute is a privately funded research institution located in Norther New York. It has a working dairy farm and equine facilities that allows it to do a great deal of research in many different areas and one of those is environmental issues. The institute also publishes an informative and entertaining monthly newsletter entitled the "Farm Report" on current topics and research updates.
The October issue just came out and there are two interesting environmental focused articles related to manure application and the carbon footprint of milk. The manure article emphasizes the importance of spreading manure as thin as possible to avoid environmental consequences. The article also makes the point that in many situations traveling a little further to spread manure instead of just going to the field next to the barn will pay off. Many farms assume that the gas and time is not worth traveling further to spread manure, but the improved yields from those fields will offset the cost of travel in many situations.
The other article of interest summarized a study published in Food and Nutrition Research that evaluated the carbon foot print of various drinks (milk, soft drinks, orange juice, beer, red wine, mineral water, soy drink, and oat drink) relative to the nutrients provided by those drinks. The results of the article showed that milk had the lowest climate impact relative to the amount of nutrients provided. Milk is a very nutrient dense product so what environmental impact it has is offset by the nutritive value of the product.
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