GHG project underway in Switzerland
Image: Pexels/Tranmautritam
The Swiss milk sector project, KlimaStaR Milch, has now passed its first year. The aim of the project is to study how it’s possible to make milk production more climate-friendly. Specifically, the aim is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2027 and also to reduce feed-food competition by 20%. Behind the project are the milk processors Nestlé and Emmi together with the Aaremilch and Zentralschweizer Milchproduken (ZMP) milk production organisations, and AgroCleanTech.
Around 234 farms with a production of around 58 million kilograms of milk are taking part in KlimaStaR Milch. The first evaluations show that the greenhouse gas emissions per kilogram of milk are lower than expected, as they are on average 0.885kg of carbon dioxide equivalents per kilogram of milk.
In the first year of the project, greenhouse gas emissions per kilogram of milk were reduced by an average of 1%.
In terms of food competition, the milk producers involved were able to reduce their food competition by 9% in the first year of the project by reducing the amount of concentrated feed and by specifically adjusting the feed ration. Food competition arises, when edible products are fed to livestock.
Participating farms received a specific and practical analysis of the greenhouse gas emissions from their milk through the project. On this basis, in cooperation with the cantonal advisory institutions and the University of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences (HAFL), they have developed individual emission reduction strategies adapted to their location. It is up to the dairy farmers to decide which measures they implement. An impact-oriented premium model should provide positive incentives for implementation.
In the first year of KlimaStaR Milch, the project sponsors built up a competence network, which is broadly anchored in research, politics and practice. It brings together 15 organisations with a total of 30 employees along the entire value chain: cantonal advisory institutions, the Federal Office for Agriculture, the HAFL University of Applied Sciences, the milk trade, milk processing, milk production, control organisations and the animal feed industry.