Climate Change: Doing Our Part

Article 3 min

Canadian dairy farmers are worried about climate change and are acting on it: adopting sustainable farming practices can save the livelihood of future generations of farmers.

By DFC - PLC, Communications Team

Highlights

  • Canadian dairy farmers are keen on adopting sustainable farming practices.
  • Canadian milk’s carbon footprint has decreased by 9% in the 10 years.

Climate change is not just a hot topic for those making a living from agriculture. Canadian farmers are often the first to see the impact of changing weather patterns as the success of crops depends on temperature, rainfall, soil conditions, and so on, all of which are affected by environmental and climate shifts. Farmers’ livelihoods hinge on bountiful crops and on the well-being of animals. That is why farmers agree on one thing: adopting more sustainable practices to protect agricultural soils so they can continue to produce food for future generations.

We don’t want to impact our environment negatively because this is where we live as well. We want a healthy environment for us, for our children, for our animals, for our cows.
Gerhard, Canadian dairy farmer
A field on a Canadian dairy farm

Lowering the environmental impact of milk

Canadian farmers have done a lot to conserve natural resources and safeguard the land they work on. As most Canadian dairy farms are family-owned and want to pass down the land to future generations, thinking long term – several generations long - is key!

 

A family of Canadian Dairy Farmers with their cows in a barn
“I think agriculture is the best way to take care of the land we care about. If we don’t, we would pay for it long-term,” explains Peter. He works with his sons, Anthony and Mathieu, who are following in his footsteps and work with him on the family farm.

In order to preserve the land, farmers take various steps to reduce agriculture’s environmental impact. One of these centres around improving manure management practices to reduce emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas. Another regular farm practice is crop rotations, which is a system for planting that helps maintain soil health by selecting different crops to grow on the same land year after year. Furthermore, the adoption of precision agricultural technologies helps improve efficiency and increase yields while lowering the use of natural resources and energy.

A Canadian dairy farmer in a field
“By rotating crops and employing more modern practises to reduce waste, the end goal is to be environmentally friendly,” says Alexandre, a Canadian dairy farmer.

Sustainability by the numbers

The steps taken have already begun to show improvements. The production of one litre of milk in Canada emits less than half the greenhouse gas emissions compared to the global average. Moreover, from 2011 to 2021, the carbon footprint of a litre of milk is down 9%.  Farmers want to continue working to produce Canadian milk with fewer resources.

The journey towards a greener, more sustainable future for Canadian dairy farms is an ongoing one. Improvements in precision agricultural technologies and research will continue to fuel changes that further reduce the environmental impact of farming.

We don’t own the land; we just borrow the land from our kids.
Peter, a Canadian dairy farmer

Sources

Groupe AGÉCO (2024). Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Canadian Milk.

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