The California Department of Food and Agriculture’s new Alternative Manure Management Practices (AMMP) Program is getting underway. CalCAN along with other allies in the dairy and environmental communities sought a climate smart agriculture program that would address methane emission reduction strategies beyond dairy digesters. AMMP is the result of that effort when the legislature last year required CDFA to set up the program. CDFA plans to allocate between $9-16 million to support the AMMP Program.

Currently, CDFA is in the process of developing the framework for AMMP and determining the practices that will fall under the program. In doing so, CDFA is holding several meetings to gather stakeholder feedback in communities across the state. While information about the exact location of these meetings has yet to be released, they have been scheduled for the following dates:

Monday, April 17, Sacramento
Friday, April 21, Santa Rosa
Monday, April 24, Fresno
Friday, April 28, Webinar

AMMP is an opportunity to provide incentive and demonstration project funding in the dairy industry aimed at projects that reduce methane emissions through a variety of strategies. Those strategies may include dry management and flush systems that result in composting of manure solids, compost pack barns and transitioning either part or all of a herd to a pasture-based system.

When workshop details are announced we will provide an update here. If you have additional questions about the workshops, they can be directed to Geetika Joshi, Senior Environmental Scientist at CDFA. She can be reached at Geetika.Joshi@cdfa.ca.gov or by phone, 916-900-5150.

For more on the dairy methane issue and California’s Short Lived Climate Pollutant Strategy, click here.