Author
Listed:
- Mostert, P.F.
- van Middelaar, C.E.
- de Boer, I.J.M.
- Bokkers, E.A.M.
Abstract
The dairy sector is an important contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Foot lesions in dairy cows result in production losses and, therefore, might increase GHG emissions per kg milk. The objective of this study was to estimate the impact of foot lesions in dairy cows on GHG emissions. A dynamic stochastic simulation model was developed to estimate dynamics of digital dermatitis (DD), white line disease (WLD), and sole ulcer (SU), and associated production losses within one lactation. Production losses included were reduced milk production, prolonged calving interval (CI), and culling. Subsequently, a life cycle assessment was performed to estimate the impact of foot lesions on GHG emissions per ton of fat-and-protein-corrected milk (kg CO2e/t FPCM). GHG emissions increased on average by 14 (1.5%) kg CO2e/t FPCM per case of foot lesions (i.e. DD, WLD, and SU combined), ranging from 17 kg CO2e/t FPCM in parity 1, to 7 kg CO2e/t FPCM in parity 5. Emissions of GHGs increased on average by 4 (0.4%) kg CO2e/t FPCM per case of DD, by 39 (4.3%) kg CO2e/t FPCM per case of WLD, and by 33 (3.6%) kg CO2e/t FPCM per case of SU. A prolonged CI explained the majority of the increase in GHG emissions for cows with DD, whereas culling was most important for cows with WLD or SU. DD had the lowest impact on GHG emissions, but the highest prevalence, and, therefore, contributed most to the average impact of foot lesions. This study showed that preventing different types of foot lesions can reduce GHG emissions from the dairy sector. The increasing attention for global warming and possible policies to reduce GHG emissions from agriculture might give dairy farmers another incentive to prevent foot lesions. The impact of foot lesions on GHG emissions, however, can vary among dairy farms, because of differences in prevalence of foot lesions and associated production losses, and in farm management.
Suggested Citation
Mostert, P.F. & van Middelaar, C.E. & de Boer, I.J.M. & Bokkers, E.A.M., 2018.
"The impact of foot lesions in dairy cows on greenhouse gas emissions of milk production,"
Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 206-212.
Handle:
RePEc:eee:agisys:v:167:y:2018:i:c:p:206-212
DOI: 10.1016/j.agsy.2018.09.006
Download full text from publisher
As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.
Corrections
All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:agisys:v:167:y:2018:i:c:p:206-212. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.
If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.
We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .
If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/agsy .
Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through
the various RePEc services.