We are not feeding Bovaer at The Little Big Dairy Company!
We love being a company you can call and who you can trust.
To make sure we are sharing the correct information we waited to confirm the exact details with Dr Neil Noss BVSc (HONS) Dip. Vet.Clin.Stud PhD Dip HRM (dairy) Director and Senior Consultant Strategic Bovine Services. We work closely with Neil on a day to day basis to ensure the whole herd are best cared for. This is what he shared with us…
Bovaer-10 is a feed supplement that can be added to cattle diets to reduce the production of methane. It is registered and legal for use in milking cows in Australia and there is a strong international evidence base that it is effective in reducing methane, a gas produced in the cows stomach when they naturally digest food, by an average of 22%. Despite this, there has been minimal uptake of this technology by the Australian dairy industry.
Little Big Dairy categorically states that Bovaer-10 is not used in any of its milking cows or heifer, bull or steer diets.
We do however, acknowledge the role of cows in producing methane and are focused on looking at many other management and farming strategies that reduce emissions intensity and decrease the footprint of every litre we produce. We believe that we are adopting best farming practices to reduce emissions similar to those that have seen the amount of greenhouse gasses associated with a glass of milk drop by over 60% when compared to 1944 levels.
These include:
- Years of using the best genetics to breed healthy high producing cows that have long lives and make the most milk from every mouthful they eat
- Working with our nutritionist to ensure that our herd is fed balanced diets and has the highest possible feed conversion efficiency
- Working to calve our heifers at 21-22 months of age compared to an industry average of over 26 months reducing emissions prior to reaching the herd by over 30%
- Developing our pasture and cropping to reduce use of synthetic nitrogen fertilisers by re-cycling our dairy effluent and growing more legumes that require no additional nitrogen and
- By bottling our milk on site, we minimize the number of “food-miles” our milk needs to travel to be delivered to your nearest café or supermarket.
While we continue to work with our nutritionist to evaluate the science, safety and environmental impact of how we farm and everything our cows eat, we are not considering the use of Bovaer-10in the cattle diets at Little Big.
