EcoLocalizer

UNH Receives $380,000 Grant to Study Organic Dairy as Closed Ecosystem

Higher fuel prices means more than taking a beating at the pump—it also affects the prices of the foodstuffs you buy. From Brazilian bananas to Moroccan couscous, the price of food is directly related to the energy it takes to cultivate, harvest and transport it.

In an attempt to cut out unneeded costs and pollution, the University of New Hampshire is exploring energy independence with a large grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Sustainable Agricultural Research and Education (SARE) program.

The $380,000 grant is intended to help discover whether a closed agroecosystem approach to organic dairy farming can help struggling dairy farmers stay in business and keep profits up.

“In a closed system, the only thing leaving the farm is the milk,” says John Aber, professor of natural resources at UNH and the principal investigator on the grant. “The goal is to see whether we can have a closed-nutrient-cycle and energy-independent organic dairy.”

Examples of operating a closed system dairy farm include using cow manure fertilizer in the fields on which the herd grazes and placing sawdust from woodlands on UNH’s 300-acre farm in barns for animal bedding (which is becoming increasingly expensive). Woodland resources could provide fuel for small cogeneration plants. Methane digestion could produce usable methane from manure.

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A large focus of the project will be on generating the nitrogen that is essential for healthy plant growth. In the second and third years of the grant, the researchers will look at alternative ways to close the energy and nutrient cycles, especially those that involve establishing nitrogen levels in the soil.

Students have worked with Aber to study nitrogen flows and energy inputs and outputs on UNH’s farm site. Their studies have suggested that both energy independence and a closed nitrogen system could be achieved. The new system would involve intensive management of manure, changing the bedding method of the farm’s 40 cows, increasing the cows’ time on pasture and growing grain, hay bedding and silage on-site instead of purchasing them from external sources

“Family dairy farms are a vital part of the landscape and legacy of the Northeastern United States,” says UNH chief sustainability officer Tom Kelly, who conceived of this project. “This research will help small farmers in this region make informed decisions in the face of an uncertain energy and economic future and contribute to a more resilient food system.”

Hopefully this grant will provide a flagship opportunity that will help family farms learn not just to survive, but thrive.

For more information on UNH’s Organic Dairy Research Farm, go to www.organicdairy.unh.edu.

photos provided by the University of New Hampshire.

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