Understanding the environmental consequences associated with dairy cattle production systems is crucial for the implementation of targeted strategies for emission reduction. However, few studies have ...modelled the effect of tailored emission mitigation options across key European dairy production systems. Here, we assess the single and combined effect of six emission mitigation practises on selected case studies across Europe through the Sustainable and Integrated Management System for Dairy Production model. This semi-mechanistic model accounts for the interacting flows from a whole-farm perspective simulating the environmental losses in response to different management strategies and site-specific conditions. The results show how reducing the crude protein content of the purchased fraction of the diet was an adequate strategy to reduce the greenhouse gas and nitrogen emission intensity in all systems. Furthermore, implementing an anaerobic digestion plant reduced the greenhouse gas emissions in all tested case studies while increasing the nitrogen emissions intensity, particularly when slurry was applied using broadcast. Regarding the productivity increase, contrasting effects were observed amongst the case studies modelled. Moreover, shallow slurry injection effectively mitigated the intensity of nitrogen losses from the fields due to strong reductions in ammonia volatilisation. When substituting urea with ammonium nitrate as mineral fertiliser, site-specific conditions affected the mitigation potential observed, discouraging its application on sandy-loam soils. Rigid slurry covers effectively reduced the storage-related nitrogen emissions intensity while showing a minor effect on total greenhouse gas emission intensity. In addition, our results provide novel evidence regarding the advantages of cumulative implementation of adapted mitigation options to offset the negative trade-offs of single-option applications (i.e. slurry covers or anaerobic digestion and slurry injection). Through this study, we contribute to a better understanding of the effect of emission mitigation options across dairy production systems in Europe, thus facilitating the adoption of tailored and context-specific emission reduction strategies.
European dairy production faces significant economic, environmental, and social sustainability challenges. Given the great diversity of dairy cattle production systems in Europe, region-specific ...concepts to improve environmental and socioeconomic sustainability are needed. Regionally integrated dairy cattle-crop systems emerge as a more resilient and sustainable alternative to highly specialized farming systems. Identifying different dairy cattle production typologies and their potential interactions with fodder crop production is presented as a step in transitioning to optimized agricultural systems. Currently existing typologies of integrated systems are often insufficient when characterizing structural, socioeconomic, and environmental components of farms. We fill this gap in the literature by identifying, describing, and comparing representative dairy cattle production system typologies and their interrelation with regional fodder crop production at the European regional scale. This is a necessary step to assess the scope for adapted mitigation and sustainability measures in the future. For this purpose, a multivariate statistical approach is applied. We show how different land-use practices, farm structure characteristics, socio-economic attributes, and emission intensities condition dairy production. Furthermore, the diversity of regional fodder crop production systems is demonstrated by analyzing their distribution in Europe. Together with identified typologies, varying degrees of regional specialization in milk production allow for identifying future strategies associated with the application of integrated systems in key European dairy regions. This study contributes to a better understanding of the existing milk production diversity in Europe and their relationship with regional fodder crop production. In addition, we discuss the benefits of integrated systems as a clear, viable, and resilient alternative to ongoing livestock intensification in the European context. Identifying interactions between components of integrated systems will facilitate decision-making, the design and implementation of measures to mitigate climate change, and the promotion of positive socio-economic and environmental interactions.
Growing awareness of global challenges and increasing pressures on the farming sector, including the urgent requirement to rapidly cut greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions, emphasize the need for ...sustainable production, which is particularly relevant for dairy production systems. Comparing dairy production systems across the three sustainability dimensions is a considerable challenge, notably due to the heterogeneity of production conditions in Europe. To overcome this, we developed an ex post multicriteria assessment tool that adopts a holistic approach across the three sustainability dimensions. This tool is based on the DEXi framework, which associates a hierarchical decision model with an expert perspective and follows a tree shaped structure; thus, we called it the DEXi-Dairy tool. For each dimension of sustainability, qualitative attributes were defined and organized in themes, sub-themes, and indicators. Their choice was guided by three objectives: (i) better describe main challenges faced by European dairy production systems, (ii) point out synergies and trade-offs across sustainability dimensions, and (iii) contribute to the identification of GHG mitigation strategies at the farm level. Qualitative scales for each theme, sub-theme, and indicator were defined together with weighting factors used to aggregate each level of the tree. Based on selected indicators, a list of farm data requirements was developed to populate the sustainability tree. The model was then tested on seven case study farms distributed across Europe. DEXi-Dairy presents a qualitative method that allows for the comparison of different inputs and the evaluation of the three sustainability dimensions in an integrated manner. By assessing synergies and trade-offs across sustainability dimensions, DEXi-Dairy is able to reflect the heterogeneity of dairy production systems. Results indicate that, while trade-offs occasionally exist among respective selected sub-themes, certain farming systems tend to achieve a higher sustainability score than others and hence could serve as benchmarks for further analyses.
Summary
Family farming is the main model of European agriculture and is a means to promote rural development, agricultural sustainability and safeguarding of cultural heritage. Nevertheless, changes ...in modern societies and commodity markets lead to disruptions in the traditional family farming model and increasingly challenge its preservation. In this changing environment, many farmers strive to secure intergenerational farm transfer, but women are sometimes still disadvantaged in inheriting the family enterprise. In Ireland, farm succession patterns are dictated by patrilineal socio‐cultural values. This not only causes gender equality issues, but it also limits the poll of potential successors when willing candidates can be scarce. Men occupy the hegemonic position of the farmer and women are subordinated to the role of the farmer's wife. With these gender roles come societal expectations of what a traditional male farmer is. Problems arise from a disconnect between this traditional identity and the current reality of Irish farmers. Reliance on off‐farm income, social isolation and the high pace of societal change contribute to reduced well‐being of rural men. In this context, it is argued that evolution of patriarchal socio‐cultural norms underpinning family farming could lead to a redefinition of gender roles, thereby reducing the pressure on farm men and empowering farm women.
L'agriculture familiale est le principal modèle de l'agriculture européenne et permet de promouvoir le développement rural, la durabilité de l'agriculture et la sauvegarde du patrimoine culturel. Néanmoins, l’évolution des sociétés modernes et des marchés des produits de base perturbe le modèle de l'agriculture familiale traditionnelle et met de plus en plus en péril sa préservation. Dans cet environnement en mutation, de nombreux agriculteurs s'efforcent d'assurer le transfert de leur exploitation entre génération, mais les femmes sont parfois encore désavantagées dans la reprise de l'entreprise familiale. En Irlande, les modèles de succession des exploitations sont dictés par des valeurs socioculturelles patrilinéaires. Cela pose non seulement des problèmes d’égalité des sexes, mais limite également le nombre de successeurs potentiels alors que les candidats volontaires peuvent être rares. Les hommes occupent la position dominante d'exploitant agricole et les femmes sont subordonnées au rôle d’épouse de l'exploitant. Ces rôles sont associés aux attentes de la société vis‐à‐vis de l'homme agriculteur traditionnel. Les problèmes résultent d'un décalage entre cette identité traditionnelle et la réalité actuelle des agriculteurs irlandais. Le recours aux revenus non agricoles, l'isolement social et le rythme rapide des changements sociétaux contribuent à réduire le bien‐être des hommes en milieu rural. Dans ce contexte, il est avancé que l’évolution des normes socioculturelles patriarcales qui sous‐tendent l'agriculture familiale pourrait conduire à une redéfinition des rôles masculins et féminins, réduisant ainsi la pression sur les hommes et renforçant l'autonomie des femmes dans l'agriculture.
Familienbetriebe stellen die Hauptbetriebsform in der europäischen Landwirtschaft dar und sind ein Mittel zur Förderung der ländlichen Entwicklung, der landwirtschaftlichen Nachhaltigkeit und zur Bewahrung des kulturellen Erbes. Veränderungen in der modernen Gesellschaft und im Bereich der Märkte führen jedoch zu einer Beeinträchtigung des traditionellen Modells der Familienbetriebe und stellen dessen Fortbestand zunehmend in Frage. In diesem sich verändernden Umfeld sind viele Landwirte bestrebt, den Generationenwechsel im Betrieb zu sichern, wobei Frauen bei der Übernahme des Familienbetriebs in manchen Fällen immer noch benachteiligt sind. In Irland werden die Regeln für die Betriebsnachfolge durch patrilineare soziokulturelle Werte bestimmt. Dies führt nicht nur zu Fragen der Geschlechtergerechtigkeit, sondern schränkt auch die Auswahl von potenziellen Nachfolgern ein, falls es nicht genügend männliche Kandidaten gibt, die den Hof übernehmen möchten. Männer nehmen die dominante Position des Landwirts ein während Frauen ihm in ihrer Rolle als Ehefrau des Landwirts untergeordnet sind. Mit diesen Geschlechterrollen gehen gesellschaftliche Erwartungen an das, was ein traditioneller männlicher Landwirt zu sein hat, einher. Probleme ergeben sich hierbei aus einer Diskrepanz zwischen dieser traditionellen Identität und der gegenwärtigen Realität der irischen Landwirte. Die Abhängigkeit von außerbetrieblichem Einkommen, soziale Isolation und die hohe Geschwindigkeit des gesellschaftlichen Wandels tragen dazu bei, dass die männliche Landbevölkerung mit ihren Lebensumständen zunehmend unzufrieden ist. In diesem Zusammenhang wird die These vertreten, dass die Fortentwicklung der patriarchalen soziokulturellen Normen, die den Familienbetrieben zugrunde liegen, zu einer Neudefinition der Geschlechterrollen führen könnte, wodurch der Druck auf die Landwirte verringert und die Landwirtinnen gefördert werden könnten.
Family farming is the main model of European agriculture and is a means to promote rural development, agricultural sustainability and safeguarding of cultural heritage. Nevertheless, changes in modern societies and commodity markets lead to disruptions in the traditional family farming model and increasingly challenge its preservation.
Participants in this pilot study are asked to rank their perceptions of food waste by choosing between pairs of four types of foods of equal weight: chicken, cheese, bread and peas. We examine ...whether these perceptions are consistent for proportionally different weights and whether they are linked to the perceived cost of the items. The subjects (n = 106) who are students are randomly assigned to one of three information treatments: a control, a food waste video or the text of the food waste video. We find that the subjects have very accurate perceptions of the environmental impacts of food waste and the relative wastefulness of different food groups. These perceptions are not related to cooking skills or frequency. We find that the perceptions are consistent for proportionally different weights of food: 25 and 50 g. We also find that the perceptions are linked to participants’ assessments of the relative prices of the foods. However, while the participants have somewhat accurate estimates of the relative prices, they vastly overestimate the actual prices of foods. This implies that more accurate information about the true prices could actually decrease their perceptions of the wastefulness of throwing out food. Given that the participants had highly accurate perceptions of the environmental impacts of food waste and the relative wastefulness of animal vs. plant products, we found no significant increase in overall accuracy of perceptions due to information treatment, except for bread, for those who saw the food waste video.
Empirical evidence remains scarce in the literature as to whether public and private sectors can effectively coordinate and provide extension services to the whole farming population with respect to ...sustainable agricultural production. This article compares farmer cohorts participating in mixed public-private and/or private extension services, and non-participants in the context of Irish dairy farming. Differences in farm and farmers’ characteristics are analysed with non-linear regression models, while farm economic and environmental sustainability performance is compared across groups using linear regression models. The findings show that farm size, stocking rate, dairy specialisation, and levels of farm management vary across cohorts, thereby suggesting that mixed public-private and private extension systems can target different pools of participants. Extension participation is associated with higher economic performance, but the analysis provides no evidence of improved environmental sustainability. When comparing mixed public-private and private extension systems in detail, no differences are found in performance across both sustainability dimensions. Policy implications are drawn for the design and implementation of publicly funded extension programmes to achieve greater farm sustainability. Notably, programme worthwhileness, payment schemes, and participants’ selection criteria are discussed.
•Participants of mixed public-private and/or private agricultural extension and non-participants are compared.•The four farmer cohorts vary in terms of farm and farmers’ characteristics.•Extension participation is associated with higher farm economic sustainability.•Extension participation is not associated with improved farm environmental sustainability.•Sustainability performance does not differ between the three cohorts of extension participants.
•On-farm technology uptake is important to achieve sustainable intensification.•Milk recording is a useful tool to improve farm sustainability.•Milk recording enhances economic performance and herd ...health.•As currently implemented, milk recording does not impact milk GHG efficiency.•Its application for breeding purposes could be fostered to improve GHG efficiency.
This article explores the potential of a farm technology to simultaneously improve farm efficiency and provide wider environmental and social benefits. Identifying these ‘win-win-win’ strategies and encouraging their widespread adoption is critical to achieve sustainable intensification. Using a nationally representative sample of 296 Irish dairy farms from 2015, propensity score matching is applied to measure the impact of milk recording on a broad set of farm sustainability indicators. The findings reveal that the technology enhances economic sustainability by increasing dairy gross margin and milk yield per cow. Furthermore, social sustainability is improved through a reduction in milk bulk tank somatic cell count (an indicator of animal health and welfare status). Conversely, milk recording (as it is currently implemented) does not impact farm environmental sustainability, represented by greenhouse gas emission efficiency. While the study shows that milk recording is a ‘win-win’ strategy, ways of improving current levels of utilisation are discussed so that milk recording achieves its ‘win-win-win’ potential in the future.
Abstract
This article examines pathways among farmers’ extension participation, the uptake of recommended farm management practices and economic and environmental sustainability. We explore the ...‘win-win’, efficiency-based focus of the Irish hybrid extension programme using an unbalanced panel dataset of dairy farms from 2010 to 2019. We apply two-way fixed effects regression models and sensitivity analyses to ensure the robustness of our results to effect heterogeneity and omitted variable bias. Our findings reveal that extension participation has a limited association with the adoption of recommended practices. These practices might be associated with economic benefits, while their environmental effects are not evident. Additionally, extension participation is not found to have a direct association with sustainability outcomes. These findings have important implications for extension programmes that focus on economic and environmental outcomes.
Milk recording is a critical tool in dairy farming, providing individual cow information. When used effectively, this data contributes to on-farm productivity, herd health management decisions and ...supports prudent veterinary prescribing of antimicrobials. Although an industry and government priority, uptake has been relatively slow in Ireland. This multi-methods, three-part study aimed to gain a comprehensive understanding of the benefits to farm performance, and factors driving uptake of milk recording on Irish dairy farms. It involved an economic analysis of N=516 farms from 2008–2019, a workshop with N=26 stakeholders and an online survey of N=197 non-milk-recording farmers. Quantitative and qualitative data were analysed using econometric models and thematic analysis respectively. Results were synthesised using the COM-B model to gain a deeper understanding of what drives the target behaviour. The study revealed that agricultural education, farm location, farm specialisation in dairy and membership of a farmer discussion group were the main factors influencing uptake of milk recording. Milk recording was associated with a €39.04/cow increase in gross margin, a 177.58 litres/cow increase in milk yield and a reduction of 13,450 cells/ml in bulk milk tank somatic cell count readings. Infrastructural constraints, cost, lack of benefits and workload were the most reported perceived barriers to milk recording by farmers. The Behaviour Change Wheel illustrates how to utilise findings and systematically develop future interventions to increase milk recording uptake. This study highlights the importance of a multi-methods approach to agricultural technology adoption and the need for evidence-based methodology when developing behaviour change interventions.
In a context where sustainability assessments are increasingly popular, this perspective article discusses the influence of methodological choices on measurements of farm sustainability. We build the ...argumentation on the premises that sustainability is a multi-dimensional concept that can be measured through an indicator approach and use examples from a case study analysis of seven European dairy farms. Specifically, the article demonstrates how and why indicator selection, estimation methods, and reporting frameworks can influence measured performance and thereby affect wider sustainability conclusions about production systems and practice change. Overall, we highlight that while in practical terms, methodological choices are necessary to conduct a farm sustainability assessment, important limitations can arise from the process. Of particular concern are farm conclusions and recommendations that lead to perverse outcomes and generate further sustainability issues outside of study scope. Practical guidance is provided to aid methodological choices with a more comprehensive and critical view of farm sustainability assessments. Importantly, we call for a more upfront recognition of methodological shortcomings in farm analyses.
•This perspective discusses methodological choices in sustainability assessments.•It uses examples from a case study analysis of European dairy farms.•Indicator selection can influence measured farm sustainability.•The choice of indicator estimation methods can also affect measured performance.•Indicator reporting frameworks have an effect on measured performance.
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