Assessment of GHG Emissions and Their Variability of Meat Production Systems in Wallonia Based on Grass and Maize (original) (raw)
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Impact of the intensification of beef production in Brazil on greenhouse gas emissions and land use
Agricultural Systems, 2016
Brazil has the largest herd of beef cattle in the world, estimated at approximately 200 million animals. Production is predominantly pasture-based and low input and hence time to slaughter is long, which promotes high methane (CH 4) emissions per kg of product. The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of increasing animal productivity using fertilizers, forage legumes, supplements and concentrates, on the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in five scenarios for beef production in Brazil. A life cycle analysis (LCA) approach, from birth of calves to mature animals ready for slaughter at the farm gate, was utilized using Tier 2 methodologies of the IPCC and the results expressed in equivalents of carbon dioxide (CO 2 eq) per kg of carcass produced. Fossil CO 2 emitted in the production of supplements, feeds and fertilizers was included using standard LCA techniques. The first four scenarios were based solely on cattle production on pasture, ranging from degraded Brachiaria pastures, through to a mixed legume/Brachiaria pasture and improved N-fertilized pastures of Guinea grass (Panicum maximum). Scenario 5 was the most intensive and was also based on an N-fertilized Guinea grass pasture, but with a 75-day finishing period in confinement with total mixed ration (TMR). Across the scenarios from 1 to 5 the increase in digestibility promoted a reduction in the forage intake per unit of animal weight gain and a concomitant reduction in CH 4 emissions. For the estimation of nitrous oxide (N 2 O) emissions from animal excreta, emission factors from a study in the Cerrado region were utilized which postulated lower emission from dung than from urine and much lower emissions in the long dry season in this region. The greatest impact of intensification of the beef production systems was a 7-fold reduction of the area necessary for production from 320 to 45 m 2 /kg carcass. Carcass production increased from 43 to 65 Mg per herd across the scenarios from 1 to 5, and total emissions per kg carcass were estimated to be reduced from 58.3 to 29.4 kg CO 2 eq/kg carcass. Even though animal weight gain was lower in the mixed grass-legume scenario (3) than for the N-fertilized Guinea grass pastures (scenarios 4 and 5) GHG emissions per kg carcass were similar as the legume N 2 fixation input had no fossil-fuel cost. A large source of uncertainty for the construction of such LCAs was the lack of data for enteric CH 4 emissions from cattle grazing tropical forages.
Biosystems, 2009
SR 792 ISBN 978-91-7290-283-1 6 production was consumed internally. The overall production increase over the past decade (approximately 2.16 MT CWE) is driven by increased demands on the export market, not by domestic demands. The most important beef-exporting states of Brazil are situated in the southern and centralwestern parts of the country. These states have an advantage on the export market compared with states in the Amazon region due to better infra-structure, more modern slaughterhouses and a longer period of foot-and mouth-disease free status.
Environments
Although beef production is one of the most valuable drivers of the global livestock economy, it is considered the main contributor to GHG emissions derived from livestock. This study’s objectives were to estimate the GHG emissions (expressed in carbon dioxide equivalents; CO2-eq) from the beef sector in Greece at the national and prefecture levels during the period 2011–2021 and to explore potential mitigation scenarios. The Tier 1 and 2 methodologies were implemented to estimate the GHG emissions. The total estimated emissions increased over the study period. Although both methodologies captured similar trends in the changes in GHG emissions, the Tier 2 estimations revealed lower emissions and fluctuations due to the different and more precise computational approaches. At the prefecture level, fluctuations in emissions were also noted. However, specific regions showed higher increases in emissions. The observed increase in emissions, in terms of either absolute values (Gg CO2-eq) ...
Carbon footprint in different beef production systems on a southern Brazilian farm: a case study
The carbon footprint (CF) of beef production is one of the most widely discussed environmental issues within the current agricultural community due to its association with climate change. Because of these relevant and serious concerns, the beef cattle industry is under increasing pressure to reduce production or implement technological changes with significant consequences in terms of beef marketing. The goals of this study were to evaluate the CF per 1 kg of live weight gain (LWG) at the farm gate for different beef production systems in the southern part of Brazil. Aberdeen Angus beef-bred cattle were assigned to one of seven categories: natural grass; improved natural grass; natural grass plus ryegrass; improved natural grass plus sorghum; cultivated ryegrass and sorghum; natural grass supplemented with protein mineralised salt; and natural grass supplemented with protein-energetic mineralised salt. Monte Carlo analysis was employed to analyse the effect of variations of dry matter intake digestibility (DMID), total digestible nutrients (TDN) and crude protein (CP) parameters in methane (CH4) enteric, CH4 manure, nitrous oxide (N2O) manure and N2O N-fertiliser. The method used was a comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) centred on the CF. The CF varied from 18.3 kg CO2 equivalent/kg LWG for the ryegrass and sorghum pasture system to 42.6 kg CO2 equivalent/kg LWG for the natural grass system, including the contributions of cows, calves and steers. Among all grassland-based cattle farms, production systems with DMID from 52 to 59% achieved the lowest CO2 emissions and the highest feed conversion rate, thereby generating lower CH4 and N2O emissions per production system. Because the feed intake and feed conversion rate are one of the most important production parameters in beef cattle production with an obvious risk of data uncertainty, accurate feed data, which include quantity and quality, are important in estimates of CF for LWG. The choice of adequate feeding strategies to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions may result in better environmental advantages.
A Life Cycle Assessment Application: The Carbon Footprint of Beef in Flanders (Belgium)
EcoProduction, 2014
Although several international carbon footprint (CF) calculation initiatives have been developed, studies that focus specifically on estimating the CF of beef are rather scarce. This chapter describes the application of a CF methodology based on the lifecycle assessment of greenhouse gas emissions for Flemish beef production using the Publicly Available Specification methodology (PAS2050; BSI 2011), which is currently the most developed, profound, and relevant method for the agricultural and horticultural sectors. Both primary and secondary data were used to model the meat system by means of a chain approach. The results, which are reported using the functional unit of 1 kg deboned meat, range from 22.2 to 25.4 kg CO 2 eq/kg of deboned beef meat. A sensitivity analysis on changes in herd and feed characteristics was conducted. Results were compared to other studies on the CF of beef in the EU and other livestock produce. Three major hotspots in the CF were revealed: rumen fermentation, the composition and production of feed, and manure production and usage, which contribute a lot to the overall CF. The CF is a good indicator of greenhouse gas emissions; however, it is not an indicator of the overall environmental impact of a product. This chapter helps to fill the void in CF literature that existed around beef products and to define a benchmark for the CF.
A Comparative Analysis of Greenhouse gas emissions from Agricultural Systems in
Many developing nations are agriculturally dependent and focus mainly on the agricultural sector for production and exports. Animals play a large role in these agricultural systems because not only are they used, but their by-products are also used for everyday consumption and use by humans. However, having such an agricultural focus on not only plants and grain production but especially in the ruminant use and production will cause large emissions of greenhouse gases. Managing these emissions are different in many nations but as the number 1 exporter of beef, India is used a prime example for policies on how to handle them to be as low as possible and limit a country's ecological footprint. Argentina suffers from a similar problem of managing its greenhouse gases emissions as another developing nation that has one of the world's largest beef productions. This paper will address the issue and possibilities of how to reduce the emissions mainly in Argentina, but also in other agricultural nations that have a large number of ruminants.
Environmental consequences of different beef production systems in the EU
Journal of Cleaner Production, 2010
The aim of this paper is to examine the environmental consequences of beef meat production in the EU, using a life cycle approach. Four beef production systems were studied-three from intensively reared dairy calves and one from suckler herds. According to the results of the analysis, the contributions from the production of 1 kg beef meat (slaughter weight) to global warming, acidification, eutrophication, land use and non-renewable energy use were lower for beef from dairy calves than from suckler herds (16.0-19.9 versus 27.3 kg CO 2 e, 101-173 versus 210 g SO 2 e, 622-1140 versus 1651 g NO 3 e, 16.5-22.7 versus 42.9 m 2 year, and 41.3-48.2 versus 59.2 MJ, respectively). The breakdown analysis helped identify the key areas in the ''cradle to farm gate'' beef production system where sustainable management strategies are needed to improve environmental performance. The study also included a sensitivity analysis to preliminarily estimate GHG emissions from beef production systems if land opportunity cost and land use change related to grazing and feed crop production for beef were taken into account. If so, the contribution from the production of 1 kg beef to global warming would increase by a factor of 3.1-3.9, based on a depreciation period of 20 years. This highlights the importance of taking into account the impacts of land use in assessing the environmental impacts of livestock production.
Sustainability
Feed production is an important contributor to the environmental impacts caused by livestock production. In Portugal, non-dairy cattle are commonly fed with a mixture of grazing and forages/concentrate feed. Sown biodiverse permanent pastures rich in legumes (SBP) were introduced to provide quality animal feed and offset concentrate consumption. SBP also sequester large amounts of carbon in soils. Here, we used a comparative life cycle assessment approach to test the substitution of concentrate through installation of high-yield SBP. Using field data for the Alentejo region in Portugal, we compare the global warming potential of a baseline scenario where cattle is fed in low-yield, semi-natural pastures supplemented with feeds that vary in the ratio of silage to concentrate, and a second scenario where the feed is substituted with high-yield SBP. Although SBP use more fertilizers and machinery, this replacement avoids the emission of about 3 t CO2eq/ha even after SBP stop sequesteri...
The effect of methodology on estimates of greenhouse gas emissions from grass-based dairy systems
Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 2011
The objective of this study was to compare two standard methodologies, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) method and life cycle analysis (LCA), for quantifying greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from dairy farms. Both methods were applied to model the GHG emissions from 9 dairy farm systems differing in strain of Holstein-Friesian cow and type of grass-based feed systems using the physical performance findings of previously published work. The strains of Holstein-Friesian cow used were; high milk production North American (HP), high fertility and survival (durability) North American (HD), and New Zealand (NZ). The alternate grass-based feed systems were; high grass allowance (HG, control); high stocking rate (HS) and high concentrate supplementation (HC). The milk production systems were modelled using a previously developed integrated economic-GHG farm model. The model calculated GHG emissions using the LCA approach and was extended to quantify GHG emissions using the IPCC method. The study found that the method of reporting GHG emissions (per unit of product or per unit area) affected the ranking of emissions of dairy systems investigated. Greenhouse gas emission were greater when calculated using the LCA method rather than the IPCC method. Both methods found reducing inputs or the intensity of dairy production reduced GHG emissions per hectare. When emissions were expressed per unit of product the methodologies did not rank farming systems in the same order. The effect of feed system on emissions per unit of product was inconsistent between methodologies because the IPCC method excludes indirect GHG emissions from farm pre-chains, i.e. concentrate production. Both methodologies agreed that animals selected solely for milk production (HP) had higher GHG emissions per unit of product relative to strains selected on a combination of traits. The results indicate that if dairy systems targeting a net reduction in global GHG for projected increases in meat and milk production are to be developed, a holistic approach such as LCA, should be used to assess emissions on a per unit product basis.