News Nitrogen
Dairy drivers back to work with urea
Livestock managers involved in the Coalition for the Future-proof Dairy Farming (CTM) want to get back to work with the so-called urea benchmark, in order to further limit nitrogen emissions. The ration can be monitored with the benchmark on the basis of milk sample results.
Read this article?
Become a subscriber and get instant access
Choose the subscription that suits you
The Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality confirms this. A urea benchmark is quite easy to implement, because the urea content is measured as standard in the milk of all dairy farms. By requiring that the urea content remains below a certain limit, the ration can be influenced and thus also the emissions.
Four working groups at work
The CTM (including LTO Netherlands, NAJK, Rabobank and NZO) indicated last summer that it wants to take the lead in four technical working groups, which must provide all solutions for reducing emissions. The ministry is also represented in all four working groups, but does not have the lead, it indicates. In addition to the above-mentioned parties, discussions are also taking place with the animal feed industry, the NMV and Wageningen scientists.
The proposal for a urea benchmark, like other options, comes from an inventory of policy options made a few years ago, the Standardize and price exploration of nitrogen emissions. The benchmark has been discussed previously, but nothing concrete was done with it.
No lead for dairy
Now the benchmark is being reexamined. This is done in the dairy cattle feed ration optimization working group. There was some fuss about the start-up of this working group last week, because the NZO took the initiative to convene the consultation. This met with resistance from agricultural advocates. They want them to take on the advocacy and not the dairy sector. The NZO has now accepted this.