California Dairies Upcycle Ag Byproducts

More than 11 billion pounds of them per year

California’s Dairy Cows Eat a Lot of Leftovers

About 40% of feed ingredients used on California dairies are agricultural byproducts, such as almond hulls, cotton seed, and citrus pulp, which could otherwise be wasted. That's a total of 5.5 million tons (or 11 billion pounds) of byproducts fed to California dairy cows annually. By upcycling byproducts, dairy farms are greatly reducing the use of water, energy, and fossil fuels needed to grow feed crops.

In 2020, researchers at UC Davis analyzed the economic and environmental sustainability implications of feeding byproducts to California dairy cows. They determined that this practice reduces the amount of water needed to grow feed by as much as 1.3 trillion gallons/year. (UC Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics, 2020).

What’s For Lunch?

More than 70 distinct byproducts are used as feeds on California dairy farms. Examples include:

  • Almond Hulls

  • Almond shells

  • Apple and apple pomace

  • Bakery waste

  • Beet pulp and molasses

  • Brewers’ grains and yeast

  • Culled fruits and vegetables

  • Carrots and carrot pulp

  • Citrus, pulp and dried

  • Cottonseed meal

  • Distillers’ grains, wet

  • Grape pomace

  • Raisin tailings

  • Sunflower meal

  • Tomatoes and pomace

  • Whey

  • Wheat middlings

  • Vegetable juice pulp

That’s 1,000 landfill trucks per day of materials that are upcycled by cows.