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Not long ago, my colleague Chip and I visited a 600-cow dairy farm in Texas that was looking for some help. They were struggling with these things:

Methane is the second-leading driver of climate change, having contributed 0.5 degree of the 1.1 degrees of human-induced warming since pre-industrial times, according to the latest assessment by the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Dairy farming is a challenging business to enter. The financial commitment needed to acquire quota, facilities, milking equipment and animals is prohibitive for most individuals without a family farm to buy into.

Frankly, I don’t hear it as much as I used to, perhaps since in my advancing years I feel freer to “enlighten” folks, but “cleaner doesn’t make it run better” is a statement that set my dad’s teeth on edge.

As Heather Watson introduced the theme of the 2021 Agricultural Excellence Conference – the Challenge of Change – she said there is an underutilized tool that can help farmers weather difficult times.