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Edinburgh played host to the first International Dairy Foundation (IDF) summit last month where the focus was on climate change and its impact on the global dairy industry. The event was very much an international affair attracting delegates from nearly 40 different countries, including the major dairying nations of Europe, the US and Australasia plus a number of emerging dairying countries such as China, India and Brazil.

Delegates heard detailed evidence of climate change including higher average temperatures, rising sea levels and changing weather systems – a pattern that is set to continue. Significant reductions in Greenhouse Gas emissions are being targeted by Governments across the globe and the challenge for agriculture is to balance this with need to continue producing enough food for a world population that is growing by 70m each year and a shift towards more protein based diets in some developing countries. At the same time various crops are increasingly in demand for bio-fuel production with Brazil, where sugar cane is extensively used and the US leading the way.

Significant challenges and opportunities were highlighted with case studies from around the world focussing on making better use of organic nutrients and fertilisers, improving land use by reducing soil disturbance and utilising waste through more extensive use of bio-digesters.

First Milk vice-chairman Robert Shearlaw, said there were clear messages: “We were told that the die is cast for the next 20- 30 years of climate change and that we must act now to slow down further change beyond that period.

“We were shown clear documentation of the change that has occurred to date and it appears that certain regions of the world will struggle to produce food in the future principally because of water shortages. Combined with the projections on population growth it was a sobering thought.

“I was heartened that all of the discussions revolved around balancing producing milk with better climatic impact. As we all know some of the environmental regulation to date has paid little heed to the fragility of production.

“We have been working on a number of ideas at First Milk and our colleagues from around the world seemed to be looking at some similar projects (and finding similar problems!). It was a very useful summit and we will be continuing the dialogue with a number of the people we met.”