App may help save money for dairy farmers and reduce pollution

New technology from the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) chief scientific in-house research agency, may become a key tool for dairy farmers to reduce their expenses and help limit pollution. According to a release from the USDA, ARS’s U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center in Madison is developing a mobile device app that measures milk urea nitrogen (MUN). The app allows a precise, convenient, on-farm test instead of requiring farmers to send samples to labs for analysis. MUN is a nitrogen-containing compound that eventually ends up as ammonia in the environment. Ammonia can degrade air quality, add fertilizer to surface waters, and pollute groundwater. Additionally, high MUN may indicate that an animal is receiving more protein than it can use. The app will give dairy farmers rapid information so they can adjust the rations they feed their herds.