The Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy® has launched the SaveEnergy online resource that connects dairy producers to financial assistance programs and educational materials to help them reduce on-farm energy use and related costs. The tool is part of the U.S. Dairy Sustainability Commitment, an effort established by dairy producers to reduce environmental impact and create business value across the supply chain.
Through an agreement with the Innovation Center, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) supported the development of the SaveEnergy tool to accelerate energy conservation and build awareness of the importance of on-farm energy audits, also known as Agricultural Energy Management Plans (AgEMPs). SaveEnergy is part of the Farm Energy Efficiency project, one of 10 projects of the U.S. Dairy Sustainability Commitment.
Dairy producers can achieve greater energy efficiency by taking an important first step — conducting an energy audit on their farming operation. An on-farm energy audit inventories a dairy’s current systems and equipment, identifies the cost of energy used and provides a detailed recommendation about actions, upgrades and potential savings that could most benefit the farm. It typically takes less than four hours of the producer’s time and can identify opportunities to reduce energy use by 10 percent to 35 percent.
The SaveEnergy tool follows an easy three-step process:
Learn how to cut costs of on-farm energy use
Decide if an energy audit is right for the dairy operation
Find financial assistance for on-farm energy audits and equipment updates.