Posteri. Scientific seminar on organic food, Mikkeli 5-7.11.2014. Book of Abstracts published on the seminar 6.11.201

Hermansen, John E.

Hietala, Sanna

Knudsen, Marie T.

Kurppa, Sirpa

Padel, Susanne

Smith, Laurence

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www.mtt.fiOf all anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 18 % is estimated to originate in agriculture and the largest agricultural contributor tothese emissions is the cattle farming (FAO 2006). According to Gerber et al. (2013) global cattle farming contributes an annual total of 4.6 Gtof CO2 equivalents, dairy farmings’ contribution to this being 2.1 Gt of CO2 equivalents a year based on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)approach.Here, based on data from six European countries, the GHG emissions of a total of 34 organic dairy farms are presented based on LCAapproach (as in Hietala et al. 2014a, 2014b). The farm data was collected from a wide variety of farms: 8 from the United Kingdom, 8 fromDenmark, 7 from Finland, 2 from Belgium, 4 from Italy and 5 from Austria were assessed. The farm size varied from 9 to 480 dairy cows andfrom annual production volumes of 41 to 4267 tonnes of Energy Corrected Milk (ECM; Sjaunja et al. 1990) per farm and annual milk yieldper dairy cow from 2391 to 10233 kg ECM.Scientific Seminar on Organic Food 5-7 November, 2014,  Mikkeli, FinlandSanna Hietala1*, Laurence Smith2, Marie T. Knudsen3, Sirpa Kurppa4, Susanne Padel2 and John E. Hermansen31MTT Agrifood Research Finland, Biotechnology and Food Research, FI-90014 University of Oulu2The Organic Research Centre, Hamstead Marshall, Berkshire, RG20 0HR, UK3Dept. of Agroecology, Aarhus University, P.O.Box 50, DK-8830 Tjele4MTT Agrifood Research Finland, Biotechnology and Food Research, FI-31600 Jokioinen*Corresponding author: Sanna.Hietala@mtt.fiGreenhouse gas emissions of organic dairy farms from six European countries00,20,40,60,811,21,41,61,822 3914 1874 2124 4584 4714 5374 6184 6274 8695 0615 0805 0805 2145 2415 4755 7795 9095 9946 5036 5056 8197 0757 1087 1807 2767 4237 6077 8878 0308 3518 5058 7178 89010 233kg CO2 equivalents per kg EMCAverage milk yield per dairy cow on individual farm, kg ECM per yearkg CO2 equivalents per kg ECM   Farm, capital goods and services   Transport   Electricity   Fuels incl. combustion   Purchased manure and live animals   Manure treatment   Inputs to own feed production   N2O (housing and crops)   CH4, manure handling and storage   CH4, enteric fermentationLCA was carried out using systemboundaries from cradle to farm gate.GHG emissions were calculated usingthe LCA method described by Schmidt& Dalgaard (2012a, b). Functional unitused was 1 kg of ECM.The total GHG emissions of organicdairy farming in Europe averaged 1.32kg CO2 equivalents per kg of ECM milk,with a standard deviation of 0.22. Totalcarbon footprint is ranging from 0.99 to1.94 kg CO2 equivalents per kg ECM.The averages per country were, with standard deviation (σ)1.52, σ 0.33 (AT), 1.17, σ 0.23 (BE), 1.28, σ 0.18 (DK), 1.34, σ 0.19 (FI), 1.31, σ 0.23 (IT) and 1.33, σ 0.17 (UK) kg CO2 equivalents per kg of ECM milk.Of the total average GHG emissions, largest contributors entericfermentation, N2O emissions from housing and crop cultivation andfarm capital goods account for 76 % and smaller contributorsmanure management, electricity, fuels, purchased manure andimported feeds contribute together 23 % of total GHG emissions.Remaining 1% resulting from transport and manure treatment. Ofthese, the main contributor is enteric fermentation, which accountsfor nearly half of all GHG emissions in total with 45 % alone.Here, variations in GHG emissions between organic dairy producingfarms and between countries can be seen. Results suggest that evenwithin organic dairy farming, there is potential for reducing GHGemissions. Variations in the tactical management of farms can beviewed as leading to variances in emissions (Henriksson et al. 2011).In mitigation of GHG emissions from organic dairy sector, especiallyfeed quality and the nutrient efficiency play a large role.Feed digestibility could be improved, even if it is already consideredhigh in Western Europe (Gerber et al. 2013).Calculation of methane emissions from enteric fermentation dependon gross energy intake. Therefore GHG emissions from entericfermentation of farms with less energy intake compared to milkyield are lower. In mitigating N2O emissions, large impact is inmanure/fertilizer and land use efficiency. Lower yielding farms couldreduce emissions per kg ECM by aiming to higher milk yields. Moredetails of lower yielding farms would be needed for mitigationdesign, but generally animal health, efficient nutrition and geneticsare the key elements.Currently, calculation does not take account of carbonsequestration. This would benefit the farms using permanentpastures that are more grass-based and would give more completeview of GHG emissions.Although enteric fermentation is the largest contributor to GHGemissions, development of more sustainable practices should be inoverall tactical management on farm. Life cycle assessment is a validmethod in pinpointing inefficiencies of a system and their impacts onenvironment. More holistic and broader models are needed tounderstand possible tradeoffs of mitigation of one impact categoryto another, e.g. eutrophication or biodiversity, and mitigationstrategies should be balanced between these.Funding from the European Community's Seventh FrameworkProgramme (FP7/ 2007-2013) was received for the researchleading to these results, under grant agreement no. FP7-266367(SOLID).www.solidairy.euReferencesGerber PJ, Steinfeld H, Henderson B, Mottet A, Opio C, Dijkman J, Falcucci A & Tempio G (2013) Tackling climate change through livestock: a global assessment of emissions and mitigation opportunities. FAO. Henriksson M, Flysjö A, Cederberg C & Swensson C (2011) Variation in carbon footprint of milk due to management differences between Swedish dairy farms. Animal 5(09): 1474-1484. Hietala S, Smith L, Knudsen MT, Kurppa S, Padel S, Hermansen JE (2014a) Carbon footprints of organic dairying in six European countries – real farm data analysis. Organic Argiculture (In Press )Hietala S, Kurppa S, Hermansen JE (2014b): The Carbon Footprint Of Organic Dairying In Europe. In: Rahmann G and Aksoy U (Eds.): Building Organic Bridges. Proceedings of the 4th ISOFAR Scientific Conference at the Organic World Congress 2014. 13-15 October 2014 in Istanbul, Turkey. Thuenen Report 20, Braunschweig, Germany,  pages: 251-254 Schmidt J & Dalgaard R (2012) National and farm level carbon footprint of milk-Methodology and results for Danish and Swedish milk 2005 at farm gate.Arla Foods, Aarhus, Denmark . Schmidt J & Dalgaard R (2012) National and farm level carbon footprint of milk-Life cycle inventory for Danish and Swedish milk 2005 at farm gate.Arla Foods, Aarhus, Denmark . Steinfeld H, Gerber P, Wassenaar T, Castel V, Rosales M & De Haan C (2006) Livestock's long shadow. , FAO Rome. 

Greenhouse gas emissions of organic dairy farms from six European countries

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