Assessing agro-environmental performance of dairy farms in northwest Italy based on aggregated results from indicators

Excess nutrients are challenging the long-term sustainability of grazing-based dairy farming. Whole-farm nutrient-mass balance (NMB) is a well recognised approach to improve on-farm nutrient management decisions. In the present paper, we use a standardised approach for quantifying NMB on grazing-based dairy farms, using a newly developed online tool. Preliminary evaluation, using selected farm data from a previous Australia-wide dairy-farm nutrient study, demonstrated highly comparable estimates of farm area, nutrient fluxes and NMB, with substantial efficiencies in time and sample analysis. Nutrient mass balances were also determined on 16 diverse dairy farms across the five major dairy regions of Victoria, Australia. These results highlighted the importance of purchased feed, fertiliser and milk sales, as major sources of nutrient inputs and outputs, with whole-farm NMB for the 16 dairy farms ranging from 185 to 481 kg/ha for nitrogen, 12–59 kg/ha for phosphorus, 9–244 kg/ha for potassium and –6–55 kg/ha for sulfur. Current industry adoption of the NMB tool has confirmed the benefits of a standardised and efficient collation and processing of readily available farm data to inform nutrient management decisions on commercial dairy farms. We suggest that the standardised assessment of nutrient fluxes, balances and efficiency, as well as feed- and milk-production performance at the whole-farm level, provides dairy farmers, farm advisors and industry and policy analysts with the ability to determine industry-wide goals and improve environmental performance.

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Agronomic and environmental performance of dairy farms in a warmer, wetter climate

Journal of Soil and Water Conservation ◽

10.2489/jswc.2021.00169 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 76 (1) ◽

pp. 76-88

Author(s):

R.E. Mason ◽

S.C. Merrill ◽

J. Görres ◽

J. Faulkner ◽

M.T. Niles

Keyword(s):

Environmental Performance ◽

Dairy Farms

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Effects of feeding and manure management interventions on technical and environmental performance of Indonesian dairy farms : Results of a pilot study in Lembang Sub-District, West Java

10.18174/515314 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Marion de Vries ◽

◽

Bram Wouters ◽

Deni Suharyono ◽

Amin Sutiarto ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Pilot Study ◽

Environmental Performance ◽

Dairy Farms ◽

Manure Management ◽

West Java ◽

Management Interventions

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Comparing nitrogen management on dairy farms – Canterbury case studies

Journal of New Zealand Grasslands ◽

10.33584/jnzg.2018.80.329 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 201-206 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Ina B Pinxterhuis ◽

J Paul Edwards

Keyword(s):

Environmental Impact ◽

Environmental Performance ◽

Management Strategies ◽

Dairy Farms ◽

Farm Management ◽

Nitrogen Management ◽

N Leaching ◽

N Fixation ◽

Dairy Farmers ◽

Mitigation Options

Five Canterbury dairy farmers participate in the Forages for Reduced Nitrate Leaching programme (FRNL) to co-develop options for less environmental impact. Farm practices were adapted and new mitigation options were implemented. To assess farm environmental performance, the Overseer model was used to estimate nitrogen (N) leaching, N surplus and N conversion efficiency (NCE) for each farm and each year. When discussing the results with farmers, it appeared that these indicators for environmental performance are limited when comparing farm management strategies. The Overseer estimates include N fixation, which is influenced by model assumptions, and N leaching, estimates that strongly depend on soil type and climate entered into the model. To enable better comparisons between farms and years, a simplified N surplus and NCE were calculated using farmer recorded N inputs and N outputs, i.e. fertiliser, imported supplement, production and exported supplements. Effects of improved management and new mitigation options are presented. Four of the farms improved their N surplus and NCE and three reduced their Overseer-estimated N leaching over 3 years (2014, 2015 and 2016).

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Problems of benchmarking greenhouse gas emissions in dairy agriculture

Benchmarking An International Journal ◽

10.1108/bij-10-2015-0101 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 24 (6) ◽

pp. 1470-1489 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Andrew Green ◽

John Tzilivakis ◽

Douglas J. Warner ◽

Kathleen Anne Lewis

Keyword(s):

Greenhouse Gas ◽

Environmental Performance ◽

Design Methodology ◽

Functional Unit ◽

Dairy Industry ◽

Dairy Farms ◽

Ghg Emission ◽

Content Type ◽

Agricultural Industry ◽

Practical Implications

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the suitability of free carbon calculators aimed at the agricultural industry, for use in greenhouse gas (GHG) emission benchmarking, using the European dairy industry as an example. Design/methodology/approach Carbon calculators which were claimed to be applicable to European dairy farms were identified and tested using six production scenarios based on data from real European farms supplemented using published literature. The resulting GHG emission estimates, together with estimates apportioned using three functional units, were then compared to determine the robustness of the benchmarking results. Findings It was found that although there was a degree of agreement between the seven identified carbon calculators in terms of benchmarking total farm emissions, once a suitable functional unit was applied little agreement remained. Tools often ranked farms in different orders, thereby calling into question the robustness of benchmarking in the studied sector. Research limitations/implications The scenario-based approach taken has identified issues liable to result in a lack of benchmarking robustness within this sector; however, there remains considerable scope to evaluate these findings in the field, both within this sector and others in the agricultural industry. Practical implications The results suggest that there are significant hurdles to overcome if GHG emission benchmarking is to aid in driving forward the environmental performance of the dairy industry. In addition, eco-labelling foods based on GHG benchmarking may be of questionable value. Originality/value At a time when environmental benchmarking is of increasing importance, this paper seeks to evaluate its applicability to sectors in which there is considerable scope for variation in the results obtained.

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