Milk quality can mean different things depending on who you ask. As a dairy farmer, milk quality often revolves around good health and high levels of fat and protein.

An increasingly important aspect of milk quality is sustainability. Excellent animal welfare has long been a hallmark of Nordic milk production. Thanks to highly productive cows and resource efficiency, we can confidently claim that Nordic milk production is the most climate-efficient in the world. Achieving climate-efficient milk production requires focus on resource efficiency. On my farm, we work hard to optimize resource use through investments in areas like animal environments, feed efficiency, and biogas.

However, consumers expect the dairy industry to do its utmost to reduce the negative climate impact associated with food production. Significant initiatives are underway to reduce cows' genetic predisposition to produce methane through breeding. Researchers believe we could reduce methane emissions from cows by up to 30% in the long term through dedicated and systematic breeding programs. If we want to still claim that we have the world’s most climate-efficient milk production, we must get on board with this effort! But to achieve this, collaboration between dairies, breeding companies, and farmers is essential.

When the author makes breeding plans, they are based on breeding indices to select the genetically best animals. In these breeding indices, animals are ranked based on their potential to generate income on the farm. For breeding efforts to succeed, methane-efficient cows must also offer better profitability at the farm level.

As a farmer and representative of Nordic breeding efforts, the author would like to invite dairy companies and the dairy society to a constructive dialogue on how we can work together to ensure that Nordic milk production, through breeding, continues to be the most climate-efficient in the world.