Mitigation of gaseous emissions from dairy livestock: A farm-level method to examine the financial implications.

Feeding the world's population while minimising the contribution of agriculture to climate change is one of the greatest challenges facing modern society. This challenge is particularly pronounced for dairy production where the carbon footprint of products and the mitigation costs are high, relative to other food stuffs. This paper reviews a number of mitigation measures that may be adopted by dairy farmers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from their farms.

Life cycle assessment of pasture-based dairy production systems: Current and future performance.

To overcome the environmental challenges faced by the global agricultural sector while also ensuring economic viability, dairy farmers must improve the efficiency of their systems. To improve system efficiency, the performance of an average production system must be determined, as it establishes a benchmark from which the efficacy of proposed management practices and mitigation strategies can be assessed. Identified management practices and mitigation strategies can then be compiled to create ambitious but realistic targets for the sector to strive toward.

Life cycle assessment of pasture-based suckler steer weanling-to-beef production systems: Effect of breed and slaughter age.

Demand for beef produced from pasture-based diets is rising as it is perceived to be healthier, animal friendly and good for the environment. Animals reared on a solely grass forage diet, however, have a lower growth rate than cereal-fed animals and consequently are slaughtered at an older age. This study focused on the former by conducting life cycle assessments of beef production systems offering only fresh or conserved grass, and comparing them to a conventional pasture-based beef production system offering concentrate feeding during housing.

The simulated environmental impact of incorporating white clover into pasture-based dairy production systems.

White clover (WC) offers an alternative source of nitrogen (N) for pasture-based systems. Substituting energy- and carbon-intensive synthetic N fertilizers with N derived from biological fixation by WC has been highlighted as a promising environmental mitigation strategy through the omission of emissions, pollutants, and energy usage during the production and application of synthetic fertilizer. Therefore, the objective was to investigate the effect of the inclusion of WC in perennial ryegrass (PRG) swards on the environmental impact of pasture-based dairy systems.