Maintaining production while reducing local and global environmental emissions in dairy farming

Area of Science:

• Agricultural Economics
• Environmental Science
• Sustainable Farming Systems

Background:

• Dairy farming significantly contributes to global beef production, a factor often overlooked in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies.
• Excluding dairy-beef allocation in LCAs can lead to inaccurate evaluations of dairy farm efficiency and environmental impact.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an integrated eco-efficiency indicator for UK dairy farms using LCA and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA).
• To quantify the environmental consequences of prioritizing milk production over dairy-beef output.
• To examine the relationship between farming intensity and eco-efficiency.

Main Methods:

• Combined Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) with Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) for 738 UK dairy farms over 15 years.
• Iteratively adjusted DEA weights to assess the impact of dairy-beef importance on eco-efficiency.
• Utilized Generalized Additive Models (GAM) to link eco-efficiency with farming intensity indicators.

Main Results:

• Higher milk yield per cow, larger herd sizes, and greater forage area positively correlated with eco-efficiency.
• Increased concentrate feed per milk unit and larger forage areas negatively impacted eco-efficiency.
• The positive relationship between farming specialization and eco-efficiency reversed when the weight of dairy-beef production increased.

Conclusions:

• Dairy-beef production is a pivotal determinant of overall dairy and ruminant food system environmental efficiency.
• Under-representation of dairy-beef in efficiency studies leads to misleading conclusions regarding emission targets.
• More intensive and consolidated dairy farming practices can enhance eco-efficiency, but the balance with dairy-beef is critical.