TY - JOUR

T1 - A life cycle assessment study of dairy farms in Northern Germany - The development of environmental impacts throughout a decade

AU - Drews, Julia

AU - Czycholl, Irena

AU - Krieter, J.

PY - 2020

Y1 - 2020

N2 - Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is an internationally accepted and broadly used tool to quantify the environmental impacts (EIs) of food across the whole production chain. So far, studies analyzing farms over a series of consecutive years have not been available, but are necessary to ensure a better representativeness of the results. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to investigate the development of EIs caused by milk production over a decade. Therein, the EIs were analyzed using two different datasets from Northern German farms. Firstly, the maximum number of farms available per year (n = 422-608, total dataset) was applied to document annual fluctuations in structural or rather economic conditions. Secondly, all farms providing data over ten years (n = 113, continuous dataset) were included in order to examine the development of the farms themselves. To investigate the influence of the soil type on the level of EIs, the farms were grouped in the regions sandy heathland (Heath), marshland (Marsh) and eastern hillside region (Hill). A "cradle to farm-gate" LCA was performed for every farm and year from 2004 to 2013, respectively. 1 kg energy-corrected milk yield (ECM) was defined as the functional unit. Climate change (GWP), freshwater eutrophication (FE), terrestrial acidification (TA) and agricultural land occupation (ALO) were chosen as environmental impact categories. The GWP ranged from 1.26 to 1.56 kg CO2 eq., the TA from 0.0240 to 0.0298 kg SO2 eq., the FE from 0.000258 to 0.000334 kg P eq. and the ALO from 0.93 to 1.19 m(2)/a. There was no general tendency of a consistent increase or decrease in EIs throughout the investigated decade. However, the level of EIs varied more frequently between years than between regions. In the year 2012, in most cases EIs were significantly higher in the Marsh compared to the other two regions.

AB - Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is an internationally accepted and broadly used tool to quantify the environmental impacts (EIs) of food across the whole production chain. So far, studies analyzing farms over a series of consecutive years have not been available, but are necessary to ensure a better representativeness of the results. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to investigate the development of EIs caused by milk production over a decade. Therein, the EIs were analyzed using two different datasets from Northern German farms. Firstly, the maximum number of farms available per year (n = 422-608, total dataset) was applied to document annual fluctuations in structural or rather economic conditions. Secondly, all farms providing data over ten years (n = 113, continuous dataset) were included in order to examine the development of the farms themselves. To investigate the influence of the soil type on the level of EIs, the farms were grouped in the regions sandy heathland (Heath), marshland (Marsh) and eastern hillside region (Hill). A "cradle to farm-gate" LCA was performed for every farm and year from 2004 to 2013, respectively. 1 kg energy-corrected milk yield (ECM) was defined as the functional unit. Climate change (GWP), freshwater eutrophication (FE), terrestrial acidification (TA) and agricultural land occupation (ALO) were chosen as environmental impact categories. The GWP ranged from 1.26 to 1.56 kg CO2 eq., the TA from 0.0240 to 0.0298 kg SO2 eq., the FE from 0.000258 to 0.000334 kg P eq. and the ALO from 0.93 to 1.19 m(2)/a. There was no general tendency of a consistent increase or decrease in EIs throughout the investigated decade. However, the level of EIs varied more frequently between years than between regions. In the year 2012, in most cases EIs were significantly higher in the Marsh compared to the other two regions.

KW - Life cycle assessment

KW - Environmental impact

KW - Global warming

KW - Time horizon

KW - Dairy farm

KW - GREENHOUSE-GAS EMISSIONS

KW - MILK-PRODUCTION

KW - PRODUCTION SYSTEMS

KW - LAND-USE

KW - MODEL

KW - MITIGATION

KW - STRATEGIES

M3 - Journal article

VL - 92

SP - 236

EP - 256

JO - Zuchtungskunde

JF - Zuchtungskunde

SN - 0044-5401

IS - 4

ER -