FARM Launches Environmental Stewardship Version 3
November 5, 2024
FARM Program Environmental Stewardship (ES) Version 3 launched Oct. 31, supporting the dairy community’s efforts to achieve greenhouse gas neutrality by 2050. FARM ES Version 3 gives dairy farmers a scientifically robust tool with more advanced features to assess the impact of potential practice or technology changes.
The update is critical as dairy farmers, cooperatives and processors continue to look for ways to advance their sustainability efforts in ways that make business sense.
Version 3 incorporates the Ruminant Farm System (RuFaS) model, a whole-farm model that simulates dairy farm production and environmental impacts. The process-based RuFaS model follows biological, physical and chemical flows on the farm, enabling more granular environmental foot-printing and scenario analysis.
FARM ES Version 3 provides farmers an advanced report, including estimates of carbon sequestration and the ability to analyze the environmental and productivity impacts of various practices and technologies. Version 3 also contains optional data inputs, such as details on reproductive programs, culling information and cropping practices, for more tailored results.
A key focus for the rest of the year will be to collect farmer, FARM Evaluator and other stakeholder feedback to further refine Version 3. FARM plans to host stakeholder webinars to foster discussion about the new platform.
