Parameters affecting the environmental impact of a range of dairy farming systems in Denmark, Germany and Italy
Articolo
Data di Pubblicazione:
2013
Citazione:
Parameters affecting the environmental impact of a range of dairy farming systems in Denmark, Germany and Italy / M. Guerci, M. Trydeman Knudsen, L. Bava, M. Zucali, P. Schönbach, T. Kristensen. - In: JOURNAL OF CLEANER PRODUCTION. - ISSN 0959-6526. - 54(2013 May), pp. 133-141. [10.1016/j.jclepro.2013.04.035]
Abstract:
The environmental impact of 12 dairy farms in Denmark, Germany and Italy was evaluated using an LCA
approach and the most important parameters influencing their environmental sustainability were
identified. The farms represent different production methods (organic vs. conventional), summer feeding
systems (confinement vs. pasture) and annual production levels (6275e10,964 kg ECM cow 1). There
was large variability in stocking rates (1.1e11.0 LU ha 1) among farms, which has a major impact on the
production per unit area of farmland, on feed self-sufficiency and on farm surplus of nitrogen. The
proportion of grassland on farmland used for forage production or pasture varied from 0 to 100%. The
lowest global warming potential (GWP), acidification, eutrophication and non-renewable energy use
were achieved by the German pasture-based system, followed by the Danish organic dairy system and
the very intensive Italian farming system with very similar environmental impact values. However, a
sensitivity analysis showed that when emissions relating to direct land use change of soybean production
were included in the assessment, the GWP changed considerably for the conventional farms due to the
inclusion of conventional soymeal in the feed concentrate. There were strong and positive correlations
between the four impact categories, and overall the results indicate that improving greenhouse gas
emissions would improve the general environmental sustainability of the dairy farm. The land occupation
was lowest in the farms with the highest stocking rate. The organic Danish farms had the lowest
impact on biodiversity loss, which in general was positively influenced by the share of grassland in the
system. A high proportion of grassland also had a significant positive effect on GWP, acidification and
energy use. The other feature that mainly improved the environmental impact was the feed efficiency of
the dairy cows, which was negatively correlated with GWP, acidification and eutrophication. We found
no relation between the environmental impact and the milk production per cow or the stocking rate at
the farm. However, due to the limited number of observations (only 12 farms were assessed), the results
of the correlation analyses should be handled with care. There was also large variation in the relative
contributions from on- and off-farm activities among farms and for the different impact categories,
showing the importance of a holistic approach and the difficulties in evaluating a farming system both in
a product and area-based perspective.
Tipologia IRIS:
01 - Articolo su periodico
Keywords:
LCA ; Environmental impact ; Milk ; Dairy farm ; Grassland ; Biodiversity
Elenco autori:
M. Guerci, M. Trydeman Knudsen, L. Bava, M. Zucali, P. Schönbach, T. Kristensen
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