How would you fill out the Percent Dry field when a farm has two facilities? One facility for calving and dry cows and another for all their lactating cows

If the facilities are close together geographically, you can do one evaluation for the farm as a whole and enter the information into one of the facility accounts. For the ‘percent’ dry field, enter it assuming the dry cows do not leave the facility.

FARM ES is LCA-based, so it’s trying to get the GHGs associated with the milk. Even though the dry cows leave that facility, the environmental impact associated with caring for the dry cows (feed, etc.) should be ‘associated’ with the milk from the facility that is doing the milking.

Why do we distinguish those animals raised off-farm (but returned to the farm later) from those that are raised only on-farm?

The reason FARM ES distinguishes the difference between animals raised off-farm is within the manure emissions section of the evaluation. FARM ES asks about the farm’s manure management, but for animals raised off-site there is no user information on the type of manure management – so the model uses assumptions about regional manure management strategies based on the LCA research findings.

How should data be entered in a situation where calves are raised off-farm (only off) but return at 4 to 5 months of age?

Enter all calves as raised “off-farm” for 0-2 months, then enter that they are all raised as “on-farm” for 2 months and up. FARM ES distinguishes between on-farm and off-farm for the purpose of calculating manure emissions – it uses farm-specific information about the manure management systems for any animals raised on-site; and average, non-user-specific information about manure management systems for animal raised off-site.