Join us, Tuesday’s, from 9-11 am and learn about ways that farms, forests, and citizens can reduce Greenhouse Gases (GHG).

January 25: Livestock Rumen & GHG

February 8: Manure Management & GHG

March 8: Field Nitrogen & GHG

April 12: Land Use & GHG (scroll down for details)

May 10: Food Waste & GHG

More detail for each webinar, below.

January 25: Learn about methane emissions from livestock (enteric fermentation, rumen, methane, comparison of emissions between stall vs grazing livestock). Register here.

9am: The Magical Mystical Rumen and Dairy Cattle Sustainability presented by Dr. Larry Chase (Cornell)

Dairy cows are a biological factory that can convert a wide variety of forages and feeds into milk which is a high-quality food for humans. The key to this ability is the function of the rumen microorganisms. Many of the feeds used by the dairy cow are co-products of food processing and are not directly consumable by humans. The progress that dairy industry has made in lowering its impact on the environment and improving sustainability will be highlighted.

10am: Comparison of Confinement Vs Grazing Dairy Systems: Effect on production performance, nutrient use efficiency, and enteric methane emissions in dairy cows presented by Dr. Andre Brito (UNH)

Grazing systems perform multiple ecosystem services including food production, climate regulation, nutrient cycling, and erosion control. Consumers often associate grazing with “healthier and happy cows” and are willing to pay premiums for “grass-fed” dairy products. However, milk production and nutrient utilization generally decrease in pasture-based systems relative to confinement systems, which may reduce farm profitability depending on milk prices. It should be noted that there is limited research reporting both milk nitrogen (N) efficiency and methane emissions in confined versus grazing dairy cows. Therefore, our overarching objective was to build data sets to compare nutrient utilization in dairy cows under confinement or grazing management where milk N efficiency or methane emissions or both were reported in the same studies. Dietary strategies to mitigate methane emissions in grazing dairy systems will be also explored.

February 8: Panel discussion on steps, technical assistance, and financial support to install a Manure Cover + Flare Systems to destroy methane from liquid manure storage. Register, here.

PANEL

Dale Stein – Chair New York State Soil and Water Conservation Committee, Semi-Retired Dairy Farmer, Stein Farms LeRoy NY that operates a cover+flare system

Jennifer Clifford – CRF Program Manager with NYS Soil and Water Conservation Committee and NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets – will release the new round of funding for Climate Resilient Farming in NYS (including cover+flare systems)

Jessica Skinner – JESS Engineering, PLLC – will discuss her firm’s design experience with Cover+Flare systems in NYS.

Ken Van Slyke – PikeSide Ag Machinery, LLC – will discuss mechanical separation of manure liquids/solid resources for different uses.

Jason Taylor – Vice President of Operations at Environmental Fabrics, Inc., will discuss his firm’s installation experience with many Cover+Flare systems in NYS.

March 8: Managing Field Nitrogen & GHG – learn how farms can help reduce nitrous oxide  (N2O) emissions  in cropping systems– with a focus on managing organic (manure, legumes etc) sources of nitrogen. Register here.

9-10am
Organic Nitrogen Management for Greenhouse Gas Reduction in Agroecosystems: Between a Gentle Seesaw and a Catapult presented by Dr. Armen Kemanian (Professor, Production Systems and Modeling, Department of Plant Sciences at Penn State University)

Animal manure is often applied in cropland around CAFOs. Both manure and cover crops are often used as fertility inputs in organic agriculture. These organic amendments are often considered slow-release fertilizers for N (when low in ammonium) when compared with synthetic fertilizers, because organic N needs to be mineralized by soil microbes for that N to become available to plants. Ideally, when N mineralization and crop N uptake are well balanced, mineral N does not accumulate in the soil. One can visualize the process as a conceptual seesaw that goes down on one end due to N mineralization that adds mineral N, but that is gently returned to the horizontal position through N uptake that removes the mineralized N.

However, it is challenging to manage annual crop production on such bucolic rhythm. And when considering nitrous oxide (N₂O), a powerful greenhouse gas, the gentle seesaw may well be a catapult. Why? Mainly for two reasons. First, easily decomposable residues can trigger high microbial activity that consumes oxygen (O₂) and creates hypoxic pockets (or layers) in the soil while organic N is being mineralized. Second, the composition of the organic amendments is hard to control, in part because the composition of cover crops varies and in part because the composition of manure varies. A rational response by farm operators is to overshoot the application rate to avoid N shortages. These two conditions have the potential to favor large N₂O emissions in bursts resembling catapult releases, because without fast mineral N uptake (or even with it) N mineralization is not lowering a seesaw but tensing and loading the denitrification catapult.

In this seminar, Dr. Armen Kemanian (Professor, Production Systems and Modeling, Department of Plant Sciences at Penn State University) presents field data obtained in Central Pennsylvania and in Sardinia, Italy, that indicates that large N₂O emissions do happen in cover cropped and manured soils, particularly with inversion tillage that buries and packs manure or cover crops residues in a thin soil layer. This research suggests that controlling the rate and timing of organic input additions, as well as preventing the co-location of legume cover crops and manure, could mitigate N₂O emissions.

10-11am
Documenting and Managing Field Nitrogen Use for Greenhouse Gas Reduction presented by Dr. Quirine Ketterings (Professor of Nutrient Management in Agricultural Ecosystems at Cornell University).

“Adaptive Management” is an iterative strategy where farmers identify opportunities for improvement in production and environmental footprints, evaluate a management change on their own farm, through on-farm research and/or annual performance assessments. Whole farm nutrient mass balance (NMB) assessments is such an annual performance tool at the whole farm level while field nutrient balances are evaluation approaches at the field or within-field scale. The adaptive management strategy for field crop management introduced in NY in 2013, affords farm autonomy and decision making for site-specific problem solving and tracks issues and successes. When farms share results of the on-farm evaluations, successful strategies can be expanded to more fields and farms. Combined, anonymized data from participating farms can help identify practices and policies that incentivize improvements over time. While these whole farm and field-level tools were developed for nitrogen and phosphorus management with focus on water quality impact, reduction of N use will also reduce nitrous oxide emissions – a potent greenhouse gas.

April 12: Land Use & GHG: learn how land use can impact Greenhouse Gases (consider what area is ‘idle’ and consider how a land owner might ‘activate’ that land: afforestation, bioenergy feedstocks, solar, new food production, etc), register here.

9:00-9:50 am
Using former agricultural land to help meet climate goals presented by Peter Woodbury & Jenifer Wightman, Cornell University

More than 1.7  million acres of former agricultural land in New York State could be available for many purposes, including increasing livestock grazing, installing solar panels, growing biomass for bioenergy, or planting trees. Planting trees is a critically important strategy to help meet New York’s ambitious climate goals, because it is a natural and proven way to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which will be required to achieve the State mandate of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by year 2050. We will discuss how much land is available, limitations of that land, the potential for greenhouse gas mitigation, and some other competing uses.

9:50-10:40 am
Solar and Agriculture, from Competition to Co-Location presented by Zachary Eldredge, Technology Manager, U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office

 According to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Futures Study, solar energy could occupy as much as ten million acres nationwide by 2050 if we are to meet our climate goals. While there is sufficient land in the United States to realize this development, competition for prime land area (close to transmission, favorable climate, relatively flat) is likely to be expected and could pose an issue for realizing decarbonization goals. Various options to address this, including deploying solar on brownfields, mine lands, and water bodies. In this talk, I will describe work at DOE to advance the practice of agrivoltaics, the combined use of land for both solar and agriculture.

10:40-11am
Land use implications of more circular and sustainable food systems presented by Lori Leonard, Professor, Department of Global Development

A large proportion of the world’s arable land is used to produce food (crops or livestock) that is never eaten. By reducing food waste, it is possible to conserve forested land and reduce GHG emissions associated with agricultural production. Keeping excess food, including food scraps, in the human food chain is also vital to reducing the pressure on land from agriculture and reducing the food-feed competition. This means privileging some recycling strategies, namely diverting food waste for animal feed.

May 10: Food Waste & GHG: Learn how citizens can help farms and landfills reduce greenhouse gases –while saving money, land area, and natural resources– by reducing food waste. Register here.

9-10am
Food Waste: What we know and what we don’t presented by Dr. Zach Conrad (Assistant Professor, Department of Kinesiology, Global Research Institute at William & Mary)

Food waste is an issue for public health, the environment, and food affordability. This webinar describes the current state of science on these relationships, drawing from the most contemporary evidence from around the world but focusing on the United States. Specifically, this webinar describes the difference between food loss and waste, food waste reduction targets, health impacts, environmental impacts, economic impacts, which foods are wasted most, why we waste food, and ways to reduce food waste at the individual level and system level.

10-11am
Diverting Food Scraps from Landfills to reduce impacts of Methane presented by Marc Morgan (Solid Waste Manager, City of Lebanon, New Hampshire)

During this webinar, you will learn how a municipal solid waste facility is working to reduce waste disposal and have a positive impact on the environment.  This is being accomplished through a food scrap composting program.  The City of Lebanon’s Food Scrap Program is open to commercial accounts and as a drop off for residents.

This series is co-hosted with the USDA Northeast Climate Hub.

This series is supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Smith Lever Project 2019-20-110.