IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i8p4354-d535878.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Dairy Farms and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA): The Allocation Criterion Useful to Estimate Undesirable Products

Author

Listed:
  • Elio Romano

    (Council for Agricultural Research and Economics-Research Centre for Engineering and Agro-Food Processing, CREA-IT, 24047 Treviglio (BG), Italy)

  • Rocco Roma

    (Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, University of Bari, 70126 Bari, Italy)

  • Flavio Tidona

    (Council for Agricultural Research and Economics-Research Centre for Animal Production and Aquaculture, CREA-ZA, 26900 Lodi, Italy)

  • Giorgio Giraffa

    (Council for Agricultural Research and Economics-Research Centre for Animal Production and Aquaculture, CREA-ZA, 26900 Lodi, Italy)

  • Andrea Bragaglio

    (Department of Medicine Veterinary, University of Bari, 70010 Valenzano (BA), Italy)

Abstract

In this study, the life cycle assessment (LCA) principle was performed to estimate the environmental impact of three dairy farms that operate using different farming systems, namely, conventional (CON), organic (ORG), and high-quality (HQ) modes. In Italy, the typical style of high-quality (HQ) farming is commonly included in the conventional system but is more strictly regulated by the Decree of the Italian Ministry of Health N° 185/1991. Although the farms are not fully representative of each conduct, they showed intrinsic peculiarities, e.g., the cow-culling rate of each system. This rate requires a quantification as it may be related to loss of income. Allocation criteria were applied to attribute the quantities of pollutants to the co-products: wheat, involved in the congruence and number of cows culled, the latter being undesirable and therefore necessary to quantify. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) highlighted that the no-dairy products significantly mitigated ( p < 0.05) some of the impacts’ categories. The allocation of culled cows decreased the impacts of the CON and particularly those of the ORG farms when the mass mode was adopted. HQ showed values similar to the results without allocation. Overall, the objective of identifying a “marker” of undesirable products, estimated by the culling rate, was partially achieved.

Suggested Citation

  • Elio Romano & Rocco Roma & Flavio Tidona & Giorgio Giraffa & Andrea Bragaglio, 2021. "Dairy Farms and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA): The Allocation Criterion Useful to Estimate Undesirable Products," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-24, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:8:p:4354-:d:535878
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/8/4354/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/8/4354/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Meul, Marijke & Van Middelaar, Corina E. & de Boer, Imke J.M. & Van Passel, Steven & Fremaut, Dirk & Haesaert, Geert, 2014. "Potential of life cycle assessment to support environmental decision making at commercial dairy farms," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 105-115.
    2. Bakken, Anne Kjersti & Daugstad, Kristin & Johansen, Astrid & Hjelkrem, Anne-Grete Roer & Fystro, Gustav & Strømman, Anders Hammer & Korsaeth, Audun, 2017. "Environmental impacts along intensity gradients in Norwegian dairy production as evaluated by life cycle assessments," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 50-60.
    3. Pelletier, Nathan & Pirog, Rich & Rasmussen, Rebecca, 2010. "Comparative life cycle environmental impacts of three beef production strategies in the Upper Midwestern United States," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 103(6), pages 380-389, July.
    4. Andrea Bragaglio & Ada Braghieri & Corrado Pacelli & Fabio Napolitano, 2020. "Environmental Impacts of Beef as Corrected for the Provision of Ecosystem Services," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-15, May.
    5. Lê, Sébastien & Josse, Julie & Husson, François, 2008. "FactoMineR: An R Package for Multivariate Analysis," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 25(i01).
    6. Rotz, C. Alan & Asem-Hiablie, Senorpe & Place, Sara & Thoma, Greg, 2019. "Environmental footprints of beef cattle production in the United States," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 1-13.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Elio Romano & Pasquale De Palo & Flavio Tidona & Aristide Maggiolino & Andrea Bragaglio, 2021. "Dairy Buffalo Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Affected by a Management Choice: The Production of Wheat Crop," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-20, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bonnin, Dennis & Tabacco, Ernesto & Borreani, Giorgio, 2021. "Variability of greenhouse gas emissions and economic performances on 10 Piedmontese beef farms in North Italy," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 194(C).
    2. Andrea Bragaglio & Aristide Maggiolino & Elio Romano & Pasquale De Palo, 2022. "Role of Corn Silage in the Sustainability of Dairy Buffalo Systems and New Perspective of Allocation Criterion," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-24, June.
    3. Castaño-Sánchez, José P. & Rotz, C. Alan & McIntosh, Matthew M. & Tolle, Cindy & Gifford, Craig A. & Duff, Glenn C. & Spiegal, Sheri A., 2023. "Grass finishing of Criollo cattle can provide an environmentally preferred and cost effective meat supply chain from United States drylands," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 210(C).
    4. Karin Kauer & Sandra Pärnpuu & Liina Talgre & Viacheslav Eremeev & Anne Luik, 2021. "Soil Particulate and Mineral-Associated Organic Matter Increases in Organic Farming under Cover Cropping and Manure Addition," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-23, September.
    5. Surun, Clément & Drechsler, Martin, 2018. "Effectiveness of Tradable Permits for the Conservation of Metacommunities With Two Competing Species," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 189-196.
    6. Jan Kluge & Sarah Lappöhn & Kerstin Plank, 2023. "Predictors of TFP growth in European countries," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 50(1), pages 109-140, February.
    7. Navarro-Miró, D. & Iocola, I. & Persiani, A. & Blanco-Moreno, J.M. & Kristensen, H. Lakkenborg & Hefner, M. & Tamm, K. & Bender, I. & Védie, H. & Willekens, K. & Diacono, M. & Montemurro, F. & Sans, F, 2019. "Energy flows in European organic vegetable systems: Effects of the introduction and management of agroecological service crops," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    8. Alexander Platzer & Thomas Nussbaumer & Thomas Karonitsch & Josef S Smolen & Daniel Aletaha, 2019. "Analysis of gene expression in rheumatoid arthritis and related conditions offers insights into sex-bias, gene biotypes and co-expression patterns," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(7), pages 1-23, July.
    9. Baccar, Mariem & Raynal, Hélène & Sekhar, Muddu & Bergez, Jacques-Eric & Willaume, Magali & Casel, Pierre & Giriraj, P. & Murthy, Sanjeeva & Ruiz, Laurent, 2023. "Dynamics of crop category choices reveal strategies and tactics used by smallholder farmers in India to cope with unreliable water availability," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 211(C).
    10. Aditi Sahu & Kivanc Kose & Lukas Kraehenbuehl & Candice Byers & Aliya Holland & Teguru Tembo & Anthony Santella & Anabel Alfonso & Madison Li & Miguel Cordova & Melissa Gill & Christi Fox & Salvador G, 2022. "In vivo tumor immune microenvironment phenotypes correlate with inflammation and vasculature to predict immunotherapy response," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-19, December.
    11. Simona Menardo & Giacomo Lanza & Werner Berg, 2021. "The Effect of Diet and Farm Management on N 2 O Emissions from Dairy Farms Estimated from Farm Data," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-19, July.
    12. Danilo Bertoni & Daniele Cavicchioli & Franco Donzelli & Giovanni Ferrazzi & Dario G. Frisio & Roberto Pretolani & Elena Claire Ricci & Vera Ventura, 2018. "Recent Contributions of Agricultural Economics Research in the Field of Sustainable Development," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 8(12), pages 1-20, December.
    13. Joy R. Petway & Yu-Pin Lin & Rainer F. Wunderlich, 2019. "Analyzing Opinions on Sustainable Agriculture: Toward Increasing Farmer Knowledge of Organic Practices in Taiwan-Yuanli Township," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(14), pages 1-27, July.
    14. Pabitra Joshi & Guriqbal Singh Dhillon & Yaotian Gao & Amandeep Kaur & Justin Wheeler & Jianli Chen, 2024. "An Optimal Model to Improve Genomic Prediction for Protein Content and Test Weight in a Diverse Spring Wheat Panel," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-16, February.
    15. Oliver Lazarus & Sonali McDermid & Jennifer Jacquet, 2021. "The climate responsibilities of industrial meat and dairy producers," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 165(1), pages 1-21, March.
    16. Nichiforel, Liviu & Keary, Kevin & Deuffic, Philippe & Weiss, Gerhard & Thorsen, Bo Jellesmark & Winkel, Georg & Avdibegović, Mersudin & Dobšinská, Zuzana & Feliciano, Diana & Gatto, Paola & Gorriz Mi, 2018. "How private are Europe’s private forests? A comparative property rights analysis," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 535-552.
    17. Roopam Shukla & Ankit Agarwal & Kamna Sachdeva & Juergen Kurths & P. K. Joshi, 2019. "Climate change perception: an analysis of climate change and risk perceptions among farmer types of Indian Western Himalayas," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 152(1), pages 103-119, January.
    18. Loc, Ho Huu & Park, Edward & Thu, Tran Ngoc & Diep, Nguyen Thi Hong & Can, Nguyen Trong, 2021. "An enhanced analytical framework of participatory GIS for ecosystem services assessment applied to a Ramsar wetland site in the Vietnam Mekong Delta," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 48(C).
    19. Venkat, Kumar, 2012. "The Climate Change and Economic Impacts of Food Waste in the United States," International Journal on Food System Dynamics, International Center for Management, Communication, and Research, vol. 2(4), pages 1-16, April.
    20. Ellen Cecilie Andresen & Anne-Grete Roer Hjelkrem & Anne Kjersti Bakken & Lene Frost Andersen, 2022. "Environmental Impact of Feeding with Infant Formula in Comparison with Breastfeeding," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(11), pages 1-15, May.

    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:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:8:p:4354-:d:535878. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.