Interesting and cows looks happy and relaxed 🐄🐂🐃. Good 👍❇️ UK

II was really interested to see GC's comments. This video was taken on a day that compared and contrasted this system with an equally well run organic dairy farm, and there was divergent opinion on which approach the attendees preferred. As far as environmental issues are concerned the picture is more complex: - Higher yielding cows will have a lower carbon footprint per litre of milk, automation was increasing feed efficiency. - Higher production means less imports and feeds more people. - Automation is often driven by the lack of available labour, rather than the cause of labour loss - The welfare of the cows was very good - the issue of carbon sequestration and biodiversity of the land is important, but this is independent from the milk production system, albeit that it would be inherent in an organic dairy system

@GC-uq2pd

Жыл бұрын

hey Richard, thanks for your reply, this is really nice from you, I really appreciate to have an argumented comment on KZread (this is rare) :) I must state that I am not an expert on farming (my work is in engineering), you probably know much more than I do :) however I am highly interested in planetery boundaries, the perturbations of natural cycles (water, nitrate, phosphare, carbon, etc) and this is in this context that I was commenting your video. You have many good points on the benefits/inconvenient of organic farming. I agree indeed that organic farming isn't necessarily the most efficient and really depends on people's value and also how it is done. However, I didn't really oppose your farming system to an "organic" farm, or perhaps we didn't mean the same thing by "organic". I feel that organic can have the exact same inconvenient/risk as your farming system if done the same way: rely on import of chemical inputs, mono-crop, not necessarily aligned with biodiversity, with less yield, etc. I think these inconvenients will become more and more severe this century. We already broke many natural cycles these last decades. What I rather meant by "changing the farming method" is what is experimented in some farms and that I would called in French "sol vivant", or "living / full-of-life soil" (for example "La Ferme de Cagnolle", but in French sorry). The idea is to trap the carbon and increase the % of organic matter in the soil, as the field is not ploughed and always stays covered by vegetation, in order to avoid chemical fertilizers. In opposition to traditional farming that requires chemical input, which is "extractive", this method is rather "regenative" (carbon is trapped). I am thinking some people are experimenting that system, even for cow-milking (I heard of a farmer in Alsace) but I do not have references. I suspect it is small scale, requires more manual work and doesn't lead to the same yield, but it is more "balanced" with the earth system. That's why I was suggesting to eat less meat, drink less meat and eat plant-based products (to reduce the pressure on the earth system and to adapt to lower yields) and socialy valorise farm workers (as it requires more people to work in the field). The reason I am trying to find alternatives is that I read report of the Stockholm Resilience Centers, and there are "sombre". We alredy broke many limits which lead to local and global pollution, and disasters... For example, the system in Bretagne (France) or New Zealand leads to green algae and/or water hasards because of heavy nitrate and phosphate inputs. I feel that your robotised farming system tends more to push harder on the current farming system, which is unsustainable. Note that I understand the points I am rising here are complex social and systemic changes.

@FarmDemo

Жыл бұрын

@@GC-uq2pd Thanks for your interesting thoughts. Here are links to the other farm visits, Richard and his team organized for this so called Cross Visit: Regenerative Mob-Grazing Farm in Oxfordshire kzread.info/dash/bejne/gWxnt8mKcduueNo.html Dairy Farm with Agroforestry kzread.info/dash/bejne/p5emqtqQddOxibQ.html and because all this needs Education, also a visit to FarmED kzread.info/dash/bejne/iqmAo7KQobfOgNY.html So you see Richard and his colleagues provided an excellent overview on the different farming systems. And last but not least and as a Bonus the link to an extensive dairy farm en Bretagne 🙂kzread.info/dash/bejne/lXxmmbGdetC6ctI.html Avec mes meilleures salutations, Thomas

@richardlloyd7325

Жыл бұрын

@@GC-uq2pd thanks GC - as Thomas posted we are working in the UK at promoting regenerative farming - essentially farming the soil and promoting biodiversity, and carbon sequestration. Livestock integration is a key part regenerative farming. For clarification Organic farming does not allow chemical input - i.e no chemical fertilizer, pesticides etc.

Perhaps it is just me, but I dont see how these are "solutions" or "progress": - feeding all these cows relies heavily on fossil energy for all the logitics (that leads to climate change) to grow the plant, or needs to import the food from abroad, and, I presume, requires a lot of fertilizers and pesticides (which perturbs the water cycle, phosphorus cycle, nitrate cycle, and leads to biodiversity loss). - i presume as well that the farmers is unable to fix any of the robots if they happen to fail. The farmer become completely dependant on a international tech company. I suppose building and using these machines also requires a lot of resources (for the electronic parts). - i presume also thst these machinery are expensive, putting the farmer in debt for years and forcing him/her to produce the maximum amount of milk to pay. I live in France and this debt led many farmers to sucide and created other social problem for the profession. The only things it seems to do is to increase production and decrease human actions. For the rest, it just seems to create more problems. Some solution in my opinion: - reducing meat consumption, milk consumption, and other animal derivatives. - switch to a plant-based regime - reclaim the land that are dependant on fertilizers to grow plants and grow others food for humans - create farming jobs that makes more sense, with smaller resilient farms, campaign for people to go back into farming jobs Changing the agricultural method can help to store hundreds of tons of carbon by ha, remove the need for fertilizer and pesticide, improve quality, etc... That video just seem to take the exact opposite direction. I think it should be review in term of the current environmental crisis we are facing today.

@FarmDemo

Жыл бұрын

Answer from Richard Lloyd: II was really interested to see GC's comments. This video was taken on a day that compared and contrasted this system with an equally well run organic dairy farm, and there was divergent opinion on which approach the attendees preferred. As far as environmental issues are concerned the picture is more complex: - Higher yielding cows will have a lower carbon footprint per litre of milk, automation was increasing feed efficiency. - Higher production means less imports and feeds more people. - Automation is often driven by the lack of available labour, rather than the cause of labour loss - The welfare of the cows was very good - the issue of carbon sequestration and biodiversity of the land is important, but this is independent from the milk production system, albeit that it would be inherent in an organic dairy system

@GC-uq2pd

Жыл бұрын

​@@FarmDemo thanks for the head-up, I will reply under Richat Lloyd comment, thanks :)