The potential of insect frass for sustainable biogas and biomethane production: A review.

Insect-based protein production has gained traction in recent years. This has led to the increasing production of frass, the residual substrate from insect farming. As a relatively new substrate with characteristics that are not widely known, its energetic potential still needs to be investigated.

Effect of extended heat stress in dairy cows on productive and behavioral traits.

This study evaluates the response of dairy cows to short and extended heat stressing conditions (from 1 to 28 days), as expressed in changes in their behavior. Due to climate change, heat stress and strong heat waves are frequently affecting the productivity and behavior of dairy cows. In the five years under study from 2018 to 2022, two were characterized by extremely strong heat waves occurring in the region analyzed in this study (Northern Italy).

Effects of cow reproductive status, parity and lactation stage on behaviour and heavy breathing indications of a commercial accelerometer during hot weather conditions.

Heat stress presents one of the most urgent challenges to modern dairy farming, having major detrimental impacts on cow welfare, health, and production. Understanding the effect of cow factors (reproductive status, parity, and lactation stage) on the physiological and behavioural response to hot weather conditions is essential for the accurate detection and practical application of heat mitigation strategies. To study this, collars with commercial accelerometer-based sensors were fitted on 48 lactation dairy cows to record behaviour and heavy breathing from late spring to late summer.

Climate change and socio-economic assessment of PLF in dairy farms: Three case studies.

Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) techniques include sensors and tools to install on livestock farms and/or animals to monitor them and support the decision making process of farmers, finally early detecting alerting conditions and improving the livestock efficiency. Direct consequences of this monitoring include enhanced animal welfare, health and productivity, improved farmer lifestyle, knowledge, and traceability of livestock products. The indirect consequences, instead, include improved Carbon Footprint and socio-economic indicators of livestock products.

The Potentialities of Machine Learning for Cow-Specific Milking: Automatically Setting Variables in Milking Machines.

In dairy farming, milking-related operations are time-consuming and expensive, but are also directly linked to the farm's economic profit. Therefore, reducing the duration of milking operations without harming the cows is paramount. This study aimed to test the variation in different parameters of milking operations on non-automatic milking machines to evaluate their effect on a herd and finally reduce the milking time.

Life cycle assessment of Parmigiano Reggiano PDO cheese with product environmental footprint method: A case study implementing improved slurry management strategies.

The environmental impact of Parmigiano Reggiano PDO cheese was quantified using the Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules (PEFCRs) in a Traditional System (TS) and in an Improved Management System (IMS). The TS differs from IMS with respect to slurry management (raw slurry storage vs anaerobic digestion and storage of the liquid fraction of digestate) and application of nutrients to the field (by slurry tanker with a diverter plate vs soil injection at pre-sowing and side dressing). Two additional scenarios were evaluated by considering the possible environmental enhancement achievable by reducing enteric methane production and by using soybean grain produced in Italy as the protein source for animals' diets.

Development of a New Wearable 3D Sensor Node and Innovative Open Classification System for Dairy Cows' Behavior.

Monitoring dairy cattle behavior can improve the detection of health and welfare issues for early interventions. Often commercial sensors do not provide researchers with sufficient raw and open data; therefore, the aim of this study was to develop an open and customizable system to classify cattle behaviors. A 3D accelerometer device and host-board (i.

Dairy Cow Behavior Is Affected by Period, Time of Day and Housing.

Dairy cow behavior is affected by external and endogenous factors, including time of year, barn microclimate, time of day and housing. However, little is known about the combined effects of these factors. Data were collected on eight farms in Northern Italy during summer, winter and a temperate season.

Comparison of ammonia air concentration before and during the spread of COVID-19 in Lombardy (Italy) using ground-based and satellite data.

Several anthropogenic activities have undergone major changes following the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, which in turn has had consequences on the environment. The effect on air pollution has been studied in detail in the literature, although some pollutants, such as ammonia (NH), have received comparatively less attention to date. Focusing on the case of Lombardy in Northern Italy, this study aimed to evaluate changes in NH atmospheric concentration on a temporal scale (the years from 2013 to 2019 compared to 2020) and on a spatial scale (countryside, city, and mountain areas).

Relating Lying Behavior With Climate, Body Condition Score, and Milk Production in Dairy Cows.

Attention on animal behavior and welfare has been increasing. Scientific knowledge about the effect of behavior and welfare on animals' production augmented and made clear the need of improving their living conditions. Among the variables to monitor in dairy cattle farming, lying time represents a signal for health and welfare status as well as for milk production.

Describing the trend of ammonia, particulate matter and nitrogen oxides: The role of livestock activities in northern Italy during Covid-19 quarantine.

Nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulphur oxides (SOx) and ammonia (NH) are among the main contributors to the formation of secondary particulate matter (PM), which represent a severe risk to human health. Even if important improvements have been achieved worldwide, traffic, industrial activities, and the energy sector are mostly responsible for NOx and SOx release; instead, the agricultural sector is mainly responsible for NH emissions. Due to the emergency of coronavirus disease, in Italy schools and universities have been locked down from late February 2020, followed in March by almost all production and industrial activities as well as road transport, except for the agricultural ones.

A Survey of Dairy Cattle Behavior in Different Barns in Northern Italy.

Due to its increasing pressure on dairy cows, studies that investigate how to cope with heat stress are needed. The heat stress affects multiple aspects of cows' lives, among which their behavior and welfare. In this study, a survey was carried out in eight farms located in Northern Italy to monitor and evaluate the environmental aspects of the barns and the behavioral responses of dairy cows.

Barley production in Spain and Italy: Environmental comparison between different cultivation practices.

In Europe, around 12 million ha are cultivated with barley and Spain and Italy are two important producers' countries. This study aims to compare the cultivation of barley of two different contexts, Spain and Italy, evaluating the related environmental performances; this is carried out considering the similar latitude and climatic conditions of the two countries, but taking into account the different average mechanisation solutions that differentiate considerably the two production frameworks. Inventory data about barley cultivation were gathered mainly by questionnaires with farmers and technical expert interviews.

Bioconversion of fruit and vegetable waste into earthworms as a new protein source: The environmental impact of earthworm meal production.

Food waste is recognized as a global issue affecting the sustainability of the food supply chain. The unnecessary exploitation of natural resources (land, water and fossil energy) and production of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) make the reduction of food waste a key point. In this context, the use of fruit and vegetable waste (FVW) as growth substrate for fresh earthworms to produce dried meal for feed and food purpose can be recognized as a viable solution.

Environmental impact of strawberry production in Italy and Switzerland with different cultivation practices.

In this study, the environmental impact of strawberry production in Italy and Switzerland was evaluated using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach. The main differences between the two countries are the cultivation practices: crop cycle duration (1 year in Switzerland and 2 or 3 years in Italy), soil management and cultivation in open and protected fields. For all the environmental impact categories evaluated with LCA, strawberry production in Switzerland shows higher impacts respect to the Italian production.

Delving the environmental impact of roundwood production from poplar plantations.

The environmental impact of timber production from poplar plantation was evaluated by means of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) using an attributional approach. A comparison was performed between a baseline scenario and an alternative one in which different harvesting operations were identified. An economic allocation was adopted to solve the multi-functionality of the studied process, by taking into account the price of the main product and of co-products.

Environmental impact assessment of alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) hay production.

On-farm production of hay and high-protein-content feed has several advantages such as diversification of on-farm cultivated crops, reduction of off-farm feed concentrates transported over long distances and a reduction in runoff during the winter season if grown crops are perennial. Among those crops cultivated for high-protein-content feed, alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) is one of the most important in the Italian context.

Water Footprint of crop productions: A review.

Water Footprint is an indicator recently developed with the goal of quantifying the virtual content of water in products and/or services. It can also be used to identify the worldwide virtual water trade. Water Footprint is composed of three parts (green, blue and grey waters) that make the assessment complete in accordance with the Water Footprint Network and with the recent ISO14046.

Anaerobic digestion and milking frequency as mitigation strategies of the environmental burden in the milk production system.

The aim of the study was to assess, through a cradle to farm gate Life Cycle Assessment, different mitigation strategies of the potential environmental impacts of milk production at farm level. The environmental performances of a conventional intensive dairy farm in Northern Italy (baseline scenario) were compared with the results obtained: from the introduction of the third daily milking and from the adoption of anaerobic digestion (AD) of animal slurry in a consortium AD plant. The AD plant, fed only with animal slurries coming also from nearby farms.

Assessment of the influence of energy density and feedstock transport distance on the environmental performance of methane from maize silages.

In Europe, thanks to public subsidy, the production of electricity from anaerobic digestion (AD) of agricultural feedstock has considerably grown and several AD plants were built. When AD plants are concentrated in specific areas (e.g.