Life Cycle Assessment of Beef and Dairy Systems.

Agriculture that is one of the most pervasive human activities on the planet is responsible for potential greenhouse gas emissions (GHGEs) as well as adverse environmental impacts on ecosystems. Substantial endeavors are underway nationally and globally to assess and alleviate the risks that agro-ecosystems have on the environment. Integrating mitigation and adaptation strategies is recognized as vital in any comprehensive approach to managing environmental impacts of agricultural production systems. In conjunction with other sectors, the livestock sector, including both dairy and beef producers, is involved in research to realize sustainable and efficient practices. We report on two USDA –NIFA, Coordinated Agricultural Projects (CAP) targeting research in the area of climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts in dairy and beef production.

Feed production, enteric fermentation, manure management, and farm activities are identified as major contributors to environmental impacts of dairy farms.  The Integrated Farm System Model (IFSM), a tool for whole farm nutrient management analysis integrates numerous biological and physical processes in a farm production system and has been effectively used to predict the dairy farm GHGEs. For the Dairy CAP, the input data and results from IFSM are linked into SimaPro® modeling to harmonize the internal dairy farm flows, to analyze potential mitigation and adaptation of farming activities using the cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment (LCA) methodologies.

A computer model titled Animal Production Life Cycle Analysis Tool (APLCAT) is developed and nested in Nutrient Tracking Tool (NTT) as part of the Grazing Cap project.  APLCAT is  applied to conduct the LCA on beef cattle production in the study  Grazing Cap project region. The model estimates water use, energy requirements, and emissions of enteric methane, manure methane, nitrous oxide, and carbon dioxide. Also included in the LCA analysis are land-atmospheric exchanges of methane, nitrous oxide, carbon dioxide and the global warming potential