Mitigation Actions Scenarios Applied to the Dairy Farm Management Systems
The environmental impacts of the dairy industry, particularly global warming, are heavily influenced by milk production. Thus, there is an urgent need for farm-level actions and opportunities for improvement, implying mitigation strategies. The aim of this paper is to investigate five possible mitig...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2023-04-01
|
| Series: | Foods |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2304-8158/12/9/1860 |
| _version_ | 1797602647417552896 |
|---|---|
| author | Giulia Rencricca Federico Froldi Maurizio Moschini Marco Trevisan Lucrezia Lamastra |
| author_facet | Giulia Rencricca Federico Froldi Maurizio Moschini Marco Trevisan Lucrezia Lamastra |
| author_sort | Giulia Rencricca |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The environmental impacts of the dairy industry, particularly global warming, are heavily influenced by milk production. Thus, there is an urgent need for farm-level actions and opportunities for improvement, implying mitigation strategies. The aim of this paper is to investigate five possible mitigation actions at the dairy farm and which one the farmers were willing to adopt: management and distribution of livestock manure and fertilizers, anaerobic manure treatment, optimization of the herd composition, feed quality, and heat recovery. A life cycle assessment was conducted on 63 farms using the product environmental footprint approach. The latter was divided into four quartiles, from which four representative farms were selected. For each farm, three scenarios have been analyzed considering the reference impact (reference scenario), the application of the mitigation actions (best-case scenario), and what farmers would implement (realistic scenario). Overall, the most effective mitigation actions in the best-case scenario were anaerobic manure treatment and the management and distribution of livestock manure and fertilizers, showing a potential reduction in total environmental impacts of 7–9% and 6–7%, respectively. Farmers’ responses indicated a willingness to implement the latter mitigation strategy better. The optimization of the herd composition, feed quality, and heat recovery reported a range impact reduction between 0.01–5%. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T04:19:33Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-c57dbac6d45343e19c8a0cfe595f1f88 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2304-8158 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T04:19:33Z |
| publishDate | 2023-04-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Foods |
| spelling | doaj.art-c57dbac6d45343e19c8a0cfe595f1f882023-11-17T22:55:50ZengMDPI AGFoods2304-81582023-04-01129186010.3390/foods12091860Mitigation Actions Scenarios Applied to the Dairy Farm Management SystemsGiulia Rencricca0Federico Froldi1Maurizio Moschini2Marco Trevisan3Lucrezia Lamastra4Department for Sustainable Food Process (DiSTAS), Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Via Emilia Parmense 84, 29122 Piacenza, ItalyDepartment of Animal Science, Food and Nutrition (DiANA), Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Via Emilia Parmense 84, 29122 Piacenza, ItalyDepartment of Animal Science, Food and Nutrition (DiANA), Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Via Emilia Parmense 84, 29122 Piacenza, ItalyDepartment for Sustainable Food Process (DiSTAS), Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Via Emilia Parmense 84, 29122 Piacenza, ItalyDepartment for Sustainable Food Process (DiSTAS), Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Via Emilia Parmense 84, 29122 Piacenza, ItalyThe environmental impacts of the dairy industry, particularly global warming, are heavily influenced by milk production. Thus, there is an urgent need for farm-level actions and opportunities for improvement, implying mitigation strategies. The aim of this paper is to investigate five possible mitigation actions at the dairy farm and which one the farmers were willing to adopt: management and distribution of livestock manure and fertilizers, anaerobic manure treatment, optimization of the herd composition, feed quality, and heat recovery. A life cycle assessment was conducted on 63 farms using the product environmental footprint approach. The latter was divided into four quartiles, from which four representative farms were selected. For each farm, three scenarios have been analyzed considering the reference impact (reference scenario), the application of the mitigation actions (best-case scenario), and what farmers would implement (realistic scenario). Overall, the most effective mitigation actions in the best-case scenario were anaerobic manure treatment and the management and distribution of livestock manure and fertilizers, showing a potential reduction in total environmental impacts of 7–9% and 6–7%, respectively. Farmers’ responses indicated a willingness to implement the latter mitigation strategy better. The optimization of the herd composition, feed quality, and heat recovery reported a range impact reduction between 0.01–5%.https://www.mdpi.com/2304-8158/12/9/1860carbon footprintlife cycle assessmentproduct environmental footprintenvironmental impactsmilkdairy mitigation |
| spellingShingle | Giulia Rencricca Federico Froldi Maurizio Moschini Marco Trevisan Lucrezia Lamastra Mitigation Actions Scenarios Applied to the Dairy Farm Management Systems Foods carbon footprint life cycle assessment product environmental footprint environmental impacts milk dairy mitigation |
| title | Mitigation Actions Scenarios Applied to the Dairy Farm Management Systems |
| title_full | Mitigation Actions Scenarios Applied to the Dairy Farm Management Systems |
| title_fullStr | Mitigation Actions Scenarios Applied to the Dairy Farm Management Systems |
| title_full_unstemmed | Mitigation Actions Scenarios Applied to the Dairy Farm Management Systems |
| title_short | Mitigation Actions Scenarios Applied to the Dairy Farm Management Systems |
| title_sort | mitigation actions scenarios applied to the dairy farm management systems |
| topic | carbon footprint life cycle assessment product environmental footprint environmental impacts milk dairy mitigation |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2304-8158/12/9/1860 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT giuliarencricca mitigationactionsscenariosappliedtothedairyfarmmanagementsystems AT federicofroldi mitigationactionsscenariosappliedtothedairyfarmmanagementsystems AT mauriziomoschini mitigationactionsscenariosappliedtothedairyfarmmanagementsystems AT marcotrevisan mitigationactionsscenariosappliedtothedairyfarmmanagementsystems AT lucrezialamastra mitigationactionsscenariosappliedtothedairyfarmmanagementsystems |