The meeting’s opening session highlighted the release of the 2023-2024 U.S. Dairy Sustainability Report, which tracks industry-wide performance across three priority areas: Advance Well-being, Regenerate the Environment and Care for our Animals and Communities.

It includes the industry’s first five-year update toward its 2050 Environmental Stewardship Goals, providing a clear and credible view of how the dairy industry is turning commitments into measurable impact.

“The report reinforces the credibility of dairy’s sustainability leadership,” said Lori Captain, group executive vice president of sustainability strategy, science and industry relations at Dairy Management Inc. (DMI). “It brings forward the science, transparency and results that matter to our customers, and it reflects the steady progress happening every day on farms and across the value chain.”

Brad Anderson, vice chair of the checkoff-founded Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy and retiring president and CEO of California Dairies Inc., emphasized the power of team-focused, collaborative action across the value chain. He noted that the industry’s progress reflects innovation and relationships built through forums like the Fall Meeting.

“This forum brings together people who might not always sit at the same table,” Anderson said. “Farmers, co-ops, processors, brands, researchers and NGOs exchange ideas, find common ground and turn shared priorities into shared progress. It’s not just talk. It’s action supported by measurement and accountability.”

The Sustainability Report demonstrates how the dairy community is nourishing people while improving environmental performance. It reflects the industry’s commitment to transparency through the U.S. Dairy Stewardship Commitment, adopted by companies representing more than 77 percent of milk production.

The report also features trendlines from Stewardship Commitment legacy adopters who have reported data from 2021 to 2024, representing nearly 74 percent of milk production. These data provide consistent, year-over-year insights on renewable energy, water use efficiency and worker safety.

Key findings from the report include:

• A 2½-percent decrease in greenhouse gas intensity since 2020
• A nearly 5-percent increase in milk production over that same period, showing more food produced with fewer emissions per gallon
• A tripling in fossil fuel energy displaced by biogas since 2020
• 99 percent of U.S. milk produced is under the National Dairy Farmers Assuring Responsible Management (FARM) Animal Care Program
• Strong gains in workforce safety among Stewardship Commitment legacy adopters 
• Clear impacts in food security, including 1.5 billion servings of dairy reaching families through Feeding America in 2024

Captain reflected on how far the industry has come and how new tools and partnerships accelerate real-world progress.

“Over the past five years, we’ve built the tools and partnerships needed to scale what works,” Captain said. “From shared metrics to on-farm innovation, the dairy community now has a stronger foundation to accelerate progress while staying grounded in what matters most to farmers and the people we serve.” 

She highlighted advances such as:

• Development of lifecycle assessments that strengthen how progress is measured
• Partnerships through the checkoff-created Newtrient that connect innovation, financing and implementation
• A rising number of feed and enteric research pilots
• Expansion of FARM Environmental Stewardship, with more than 1,000 assessments completed since its inception
• Continued progress through regional programs like the California Dairy Research Foundation and Dairy Cares, which deliver an estimated 5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent reductions each year

The meeting included panel sessions and breakout sessions exploring the evolving science, technology and financing needed to advance sustainability at scale. 

 A discussion led by Captain brought together experts from DMI, Dairy Farmers of America, Bar 20 Dairy and Leprino Foods. The group shared insights from the in-development greenhouse gas (GHG) strategic roadmap and discussed how credible science and models, financing tools and innovation can help bridge the gap between ambition and action.

 A discussion on the Ruminant Farm Systems (RuFaS) model showcased how it is designed to optimize dairy farm production and quantify economic and environmental outcomes. A key feature of RuFaS is its ability to simulate the interaction of processes across the farm and to explore different management decisions and their potential impacts. DMI provided partnership support of the science that made RuFaS possible.

 Other sessions explored regenerative agriculture, circularity through soil health, the role of dairy in future food and nutrition trends and new applications for the U.S. Dairy Health and Wellness Playbook.