the digital roadmap for climate-smart dairy

The global dairy sector is under pressure to balance productivity with sustainability. From your perspective, what are the most urgent sustainability challenges dairy must address in the next decade?

The next decade gives the dairy sector a major opportunity to pair growing global demand with real sustainability progress.

The most urgent challenge remains greenhouse gas emissions, particularly methane, but we now have proven interventions – from feed innovations to better manure management – that can cut emissions without compromising productivity.

The real catalyst will be credible measurement. Solutions like Sustell™, which turn crop, feed, farm and processing data into robust environmental footprints, help producers identify their biggest ‘hotspots’, target the right solutions and demonstrate progress to customers and regulators.

With rising consumer demand for traceability, this transparency offers the opportunity to go beyond compliance and turn sustainability into business value and a competitive edge.

There are, of course, other challenges that will be ‘mission critical’ for the sector’s long-term sustainability.

Reducing reliance on antibiotics through stronger herd health and biosecurity is essential for tackling antimicrobial resistance. And addressing water use and nutrient runoff remains vital, with technologies such as precision irrigation and anaerobic digestion helping to lower environmental impact while creating new efficiency gains and revenue streams.

Above all, sustainability will scale through value-chain collaboration. When feed suppliers, farmers, processors, retailers and finance partners share data and align incentives, sustainability becomes a driver of efficiency, profitability, resilience and competitiveness – not a cost burden.

Dairy has the chance to lead the transition to a more productive, transparent and climate-smart food system.

 

What does ‘real-time decision-making’ look like on a dairy farm, and how could this capability change the sector if scaled globally?

Real-time decision-making has the potential to fundamentally elevate how dairy farmers manage their herds, land and resources.

By harnessing continuous data from sensor-based systems that track cow health, milk yield, feed intake and on-farm environmental conditions, farmers can act earlier and more precisely than ever before.

If a cow shows early signs of mastitis or heat stress, the system flags it instantly, enabling timely intervention that protects both welfare and performance.

The same applies to nutrition. Dynamic feed optimisation uses real-time data to adjust rations automatically to match the nutritional requirements of the cow at a particular time. This supports better welfare, reduces methane emissions and improves overall productivity.

Smart milking technologies and predictive AI models can identify fertility windows, anticipate health risks and streamline milking routines – all of which enhance efficiency while strengthening animal care. The impact is significant.

Labour demands fall as manual monitoring is replaced by targeted, data-led action. Emissions decrease through more efficient feed and resource use. Milk quality and consistency improve. Ultimately, these technologies help farmers build more resilient, profitable and climate-smart operations, demonstrating how innovation can turn sustainability from a challenge into a real business opportunity for the dairy sector.

 

We often hear about data-driven farming. How important is it that this data comes directly from farms rather than from modelled or secondary sources?

Primary farm data is absolutely fundamental to meaningful progress in sustainable dairy. Because every farm is unique, only accurate, primary data can reveal and guide the interventions that deliver measurable improvements.

Modelled or secondary data can support benchmarking, but it can’t match the precision or credibility of verified on-farm insights.

Crucially, primary data also unlocks new value, moving beyond reporting to a pathway of business sustainability and long-term profitability.

When emissions reductions are measured reliably and credibly, this opens the door to lower-cost, sustainability-linked financing, stronger customer trust and engagement (delivering downstream customer Scope 3 emissions targets) and emerging opportunities like carbon insetting and monetisation.

 

What do you see as the biggest barriers to adopting digital sustainability solutions, and how can the industry help lower those barriers for farmers?

Historically, one of the biggest barriers has been the complexity and cost of measuring a farm’s environmental footprint.

Traditional lifecycle assessment (LCA) required consultants, took weeks, were costly and thus simply out of reach for most producers.

Scalable digital platforms, like Sustell™, are transformational and democratise the LCA space. By integrating data from feed systems, crops and herd management, and farm management systems, producers can generate accurate footprints in minutes rather than months, enabling them to be constantly up to date on their footprint assessment (without limitations) and to benefit from the associated opportunities in a credible and transparent way.

As these software solutions become more accessible, automated and embedded in daily decision-making, they shift sustainability from a burdensome reporting task to a practical management advantage, helping farmers improve efficiency, resilience and long-term profitability.

 

How can digital sustainability solutions clearly demonstrate return on investment – not only in terms of environmental gains such as reduced emissions, but also in profitability and long-term business resilience for farmers?

For digital sustainability solutions to deliver real value, they need to show a clear business case.

Platforms like Sustell™ already do this by providing fast, accurate insights that highlight exactly where emissions and inefficiencies occur and how to make improvements. When farmers can see true areas for improvement, they can make targeted, well considered changes. This affords them the ability to see how optimising feed, reducing waste, changes in manure management and reducing energy and water use can directly improve margins, while lowering the environmental footprint of the farm.

Crucially, verified environmental gains also open new revenue and financing opportunities.

Measured emission reductions can support carbon insetting partnerships with supply chain customers, while banks increasingly offer preferential loan terms to farms demonstrating credible progress.

Over time, this transparency strengthens a farm’s position with processors, retailers and associated stakeholders, helping to secure preferred supplier status and building greater resilience and trust.

 

Many farms already use multiple digital solutions for feed, herd health and environmental monitoring. What does true integration across these systems look like, and why does it matter for sustainability outcomes?

True integration means that the digital solutions farmers already rely on for feed, herd health and environmental monitoring can communicate seamlessly.

API links enable recipe management software, herd / farm management systems and sustainability software to connect easily, so data moves effortlessly between them. At dsm-firmenich, we’re working with industry-leading recipe management software providers, agronomy companies and farm data partners to make this interoperability a reality.

Integration matters because sustainability isn’t achieved in isolation – partnerships are key.

Bringing data from these multiple sources together creates a full lifecycle view – from crop to feed to farm to milk – enabling coordinated, evidence-based decisions that improve efficiency, strengthen traceability and reduce environmental impact. This joined-up approach is what ultimately drives meaningful, credible, scalable progress.

 

Looking globally, how adaptable are digital sustainability solutions across vastly differing production systems, from intensive European dairies to smallholder farms in emerging markets?

Digital sustainability solutions are becoming increasingly adaptable. We’ve designed Sustell™ as a modular system to accommodate diverse and highly nuanced production realities enabling individual farmers to assess their full environmental footprint within boundaries of their own farm – whether a farm grows its own feed, relies on pasture, or integrates processing on-site. This flexibility ensures the same platform can serve everything from large-scale European operations to smallholder farms and dairies in emerging markets.

The core principle is universality: if data can be captured, we can help make sense of it. The more adaptable the system, the broader its potential impact on global sustainability and food security.

 

As the dairy sector continues its sustainability journey, how can farmers, technology providers and the wider food industry best work together to make digital solutions a driver of meaningful change?

Data is key and collaboration is fundamental to make meaningful change. No single actor can transform the dairy sector alone. Farmers, feed suppliers, processors, retailers and technology providers all have a role to play in aligning on metrics and sharing data responsibly to create business value while improving the sustainability of the industry.

By embracing change together, we can build a more transparent, efficient and resilient food system that benefits everyone along the value chain.