The 2018 ARPAS Symposium titled “Sustainable Dairy Production” will be held in conjunction with the annual American Dairy Science Association meeting in Knoxville, Tennessee, on Monday, June 25. The symposium will start at 9:30 am. The location is yet to be determined but will appear in your ADSA meeting information packet.

The effects of agricultural production systems on the environment and the effects of regulations and climate change on animal production systems are growing concerns for consumers, producers, and regulators. This has resulted in a need to better understand the vulnerability and increase the resilience of dairy production systems as it relates to nutrient conservation and climate change and to better understand methods to conserve nutrients, mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, and adapt to new regulations and climatic variability. Speakers in this symposium will summarize the current regulatory climate for livestock operations and summarize current data regarding dairy greenhouse gas emissions and how they affect modeling of dairy production systems.

We have three excellent speakers covering the topic of Sustainable Dairy Production. Greg Zwicke, of the USDA–Natural Resources Conservation Service in Ft. Collins, Colorado, will discuss “Understanding and Addressing Nutrient Losses to the Environment from Livestock Production.” Zwicke is an agricultural engineer and for the past several years has co-chaired a joint USDA–USEPA working group looking at ammonia emissions and ammonia regulations from animal feeding operations. Michel Wattiaux, of the University of Wisconsin, will discuss “Mitigation of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Dairies (the Cow, the Manure, and the Field).” Mike Van Amburgh, of Cornell University, will discuss “Modifications to the CNCPS Related to Environmental Issues—Capability to Evaluate Greenhouse Gasses, Nitrogen and Phosphorus Excretion at the Farm Level.” Wattiaux and Van Amburgh are team members of the multi-state, multi-discipline “Dairy – CAP” research project funded by the USDA–National Institutes of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). All presentations will be written into manuscripts that will be published in The Professional Animal Scientist. We thank the following sponsors for their help in covering the costs of manuscript publication: Platinum-Plus sponsor—The Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy; Platinum sponsors—QualiTech and the ARPAS Foundation; and Silver sponsor—Cargill.