VAS – GHG emissions
In recent years, global dairy processors have set ambitious goals to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Many diaries have announced their support for the Net Zero Initiative, aiming to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
However, their current processes are not sufficient to enact the change needed to meet these goals, nor protect them from risk. Current systems used to audit emissions are static, outdated, and limited, leaving processors vulnerable to risk. Farmers are required to manually fill out estimations in complex surveys, which can be time consuming and error prone. This results in poor conclusions that do not accurately represent reality. Also, the current process does not provide insight into the factors that affect emissions, making it difficult to identify areas for improvement.
The goal of this project was to automate this process using data in the VAS PULSE Platform. DairyComp and FeedWatch contain much of the data required to calculate the most important variables that determine GHG emissions. For example, DairyComp contains data about the annual milk weight and average fat and protein ratio, while FeedWatch contains data about the dry matter intake for different types of feed. These numbers can be combined to calculate both enteric emissions and feed emissions. DairyComp also contains information about the number of cows and calves that are sold for meat, which can be used to calculate the portion of CO2 allocated to milk and beef production.
The final result is a dashboard that shows all variables computed using the VAS PULSE Platform. Other variables can be adjusted manually, allowing users to see how their choices affect the total emissions of their farm. The final goal is to integrate this tool into the VAS PULSE Platform, giving all VAS customers realtime insights into their emissions.
Kevin Haver
Lead Data Scientist
Tom Klaver
Data Scientist