Despite claims farmers are ‘killing the planet,’ the industry has a lot to be positive about with the dairy sector in particular making huge advances in animal welfare, technology and production.

While Extinction Rebellion desperately seek increasing numbers of the population to become vegan – amongst many other things – the fact remains that global population is set to rise 26% in the next 30 years and farmers will have to feed more people from fewer and more expensive inputs, on less ground and with less environmental impact.

Add to that new work from Oxford University which showed that the carbon footprint from dairy farming is not as bad as portrayed. This is potentially good news for the industry if this new calculation for carbon footprint is taken on board, according to Dr Jude Capper, an animal scientist and livestock sustainability consultant at Bovidiva.

Speaking at the Semex Conference, in Glasgow, on Tuesday, she told delegates all foods have an environmental impact in terms of emissions and carbon footprint, based on the assumption that carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane are unable to break down and rise up into the atmosphere.

However, the work from Oxford has showed that methane breaks down over time and could, in fact, contribute to global cooling.

“Under the Global Warming Potential 100 (GWP) the carbon footprint of dairy would be considerably reduced from 1.08kg CO2/kg of milk to 0.43kg CO2/kg of milk,” she said. “This new calculation makes dairy farming look a lot better.”

King Hickman, of GPS Dairy Consulting, was also confident emissions could be reduced when an additive has already been developed that has been shown to reduce methane levels from livestock, but without any other advantage, and no-one willing to pay for it, the product is not even available for sale yet.

He told farmers they will have to up their game if the industry is to feed a global population that is set to increase by 26% between 2020 and 2050, with the most effective way of being through genetics.

“Huge genetic advances are needed. Over the next 10 years, output per animal on a solids base in the UK needs to increase by 20-30% and come from grass-based rations.

"While milk and components are highly heritable, much of the industry only selects for such traits on the sire side,” said Mr Hickman, who works with farmers throughout much of the Midwest US, Europe and Australia.

“Historically, there has been no selection on the female side, but by using sexed semen and genomics, huge increases in production are possible.”

He added that dairy farmers generally see genetic progress of 3.5% by relying solely on improved milk traits of the sire. However, introducing sexed semen on average will see that figure rise to 9.6%, with the genetic gain from genomics and sexed semen increasing to 16.8%.

“Genetic testing might be expensive, but it is worth it in that if you have more heifers to select from as replacements and you know you are keeping the best ones.

“I don’t think any of our cows are milking to their genetic potential,” he added, pointing out that many have the potential to improve milk yields by as much as 5000 litres, but would also require better management.

Backing this up, Peter Hynes – who with wife Paula owns the 180-cow Rathard pedigree Holstein herd on the outskirts of Cork, Eire – said the only way they had been able to maximise production to expand and build a new cow barn for 240 head of cattle was through better genetics.

Completely new to farming and previously in the construction industry, he took to dairying in 2010, renting 100ha of grassland and milking 50 cows. He embraced research and technology, went to agricultural college and started AI'ing his cows in 2012.

With a passion for breeding cows with a high Economic Breeding Index (EBI), he soon adopted genomics to such an extent that all females are now genotyped with only the highest genetic merit females retained as replacements with the remainder sold at a premium.

“Genetics and genomics are the key driver for milk solid production in our spring-calving grass-based herd,” said Mr Hynes, who was presented the Independent Farmer of the Year in 2017, bred and owns heifers in the top 1% of Eire. Last year, he sold the herd's first bull into an AI stud.

He added that milk production increased 9.5% in their herd last year purely on the back of improved genetics, with high EBI sires used that are well balanced and boasting high health figures.

However, while the couple has enjoyed huge success in recent years, Mr Hynes was quick to point out life has not always been so rosy, having struggled with serious depression prior to taking up farming.

“I struggled with self confidence and suffered from depression and I didn’t see it coming, it just crept up on me,” he said.

“Depression is the biggest challenge farmers face today. Would you believe 26 farmers lose their lives to suicide in Ireland every year and one farmer a week is lost in the UK to suicide,” he said.

“Globally, there are 1400 suicides in agriculture every year, with 732 taking their own lives in France in 2016 alone, while in Australia one farmer is lost to suicide every four days.

“Farming is a very psychological job with huge demands and a heavy workload and with poor and declining incomes there are growing financial pressures on all farmers who on small units have less social support and interaction.”

Mr Hynes encouraged farmers to assess mental wellbeing on a daily basis and make it a priority to share what is worrying them and look to eat and sleep better. "Don’t suffer in silence, you are not alone,” he said.