Most dairymen are sick of hearing talk of sustainability . . . in fact, many consider it to be more of a four-letter word when they hear it.

I honestly cannot blame them.

Dairymen have been utilizing sustainable practices for their entire lifetimes, but they rarely get credit for it. The average consumer is so far removed from food production that they don't realize what sustainable agriculture truly looks like and that it is practiced by the U.S. dairy industry every day.

Recognizing we needed the science to back up our practices and that we must continue to innovate to meet consumers growing demands, the board of directors of the Idaho Dairymen's Association has been investing in environmental research for the past two decades. This past month, we had the opportunity to share some of that work with the dairy supply chain through a webinar we hosted with the U.S. Dairy Sustainability Alliance.

We work very closely with the USDA Ag Research Station in Kimberly, Idaho, and are researching a number of areas that are timely to today's sustainability conversations. Our research looks at a full dairy system from cows to crops and covers air emissions, soil health, and water quality. Videos highlighting these projects can be viewed by visiting www.idahodairymens.org/environmental-stewardship.

There is a recording of the full webinar, or you can watch each segment individually by clicking on the specific research project videos. We hope you find value in this work. If you have any questions about the project, the researchers' contact information is provided in the videos, and I can be reached at rick@idahodairymens.org.