Cornell University fired the latest salvo in the war between farmers and environmentalists.

A study published in the Journal of Animal Science by J.L. Capper, R.A. Cady and D.E. Bauman suggests through a comparison of the U.S. dairy industry in 1944 and 2007 that dairy farms are leaving a much smaller carbon footprint today.

Holy bovine, Batman!

Urban areas are running off adjacent agricultural areas through adoption of noise and pollution ordinances. The media broadcast rivers of manure produced by large factory farms, and belching cows get the blame for the hole in the ozone.

Eh, what’s up, docs?

Capper, Cady and Bauman used data sets from 1944 and 2007 combined with historical information on management practices to reconstruct the dairy industry from both years. Their findings take the wind out of those complaining about the wind from cows.

They didn’t just focus on the cows. They evaluated the total resource use and environmental impact from feed production, land management and herd management versus milk production. They don’t suggest that cows have stopped burping and passing gas but that the amount of those bodily functions produces more milk today than at the end of World War II.

Here’s the short story. Today’s dairy industry needs just one-fifth of World War II era cows, one-fourth of feed, one-third of the water and one-tenth of the acreage to produce 1 billion kilograms of milk. The total carbon footprint per that same 1 billion kilograms of milk today is just over one-third for that amount of milk produced in 1944. That sounds like a road to sustainability.

The carbon footprint includes greenhouse gas emissions of methane, ammonia and carbon dioxide produced by cows in manure, burping and passing gas along with energy uses for cropping with tractors and ammonia emissions from fertilizer

“A common perception is that historical methods of food production were inherently more environmentally friendly than modern agricultural practices. This is often referred by media portrayal of rustic pastoral scenes as the ‘good old days’ compared with the perception of ‘factory farming’ today,” the authors wrote in their introduction.

World War II cows were spread across the country on larger farms where they weren’t as obvious. Further, the World War II population was much less than today’s, which means farming operations encroached far less on urban and suburban communities. Out of sight, out of mind, as it were.

A larger population combined with more intense farming practices on fewer acres adds up to unfriendly neighbors and noise and pollution ordinances.

1944 saw 25.6 million cows producing 53 billion kilograms of milk. 2007 saw just 9.2 million cows producing 84.2 billion kilograms of milk.

During World War II, farmers used the best land to grow crops. Cattle grazed in lower quality pastures, which required more acreage per cow supplemented with crops grown by the farmer. Tilling the land required the use of draft animals because few farmers could afford tractors. Cultivated soil is more susceptible to erosion. Farmers selected breeds with higher milk solids such as Jersey and Guernsey. About 40 percent of those herds included Holsteins.

Today’s herds are 90 percent Holstein, which produce a greater volume of milk. Artificial insemination has negated the need to maintain bulls in herds, which reduces the overall animal numbers on dairy farms. Further, genetics allows breeders to grow super milk producers and high-yield crops. Cows are fed high-nutrient rations that include human food byproducts and waste from fiber industries, which reduces the amount of land needed to grow feed supplements. Today’s cows have little need of pasture, but the environmental damage of those needs are mitigated by no-till and other conservation practices.

The numbers tell the story. A World War II cow produced 2,074 kilograms of milk per year. Today’s cow produces 9,193 — four times as much.

The authors suggest the energy requirements to maintain draft animals for farming in World War II were 12 percent greater than the same work done by tractor power. Holy John Deere, Batman!

Capper, Cady and Bauman conclude, “The immediate challenge for the dairy industry is to actively communicate the gains made since World War II and the considerable potential for environmental mitigation yet to be gained through use of modern dairy production systems.”

A good place to start is with the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposal to tax livestock farmers for carbon emissions under the Clean Air Act. That was discussed in this space six months ago.

— Young is a

Register-Herald columnist.

E-mail: ynerissa@verizon.net.

© 2009 by Nerissa Young