Invited Review: Emission and mitigation of greenhouse gases from dairy farms: The cow, the manure, and the field

ABSTRACT Purpose We identified the biophysical drivers of the main sources of on-farm greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions: enteric methane (CH4), manure CH4 and nitrous oxide (N2O), and field N2O and carbon dioxide (CO2). We explored the effect of selected management practices and their interactions on emissions mitigation and summarized findings from life cycle assessments of milk from dairy systems typical of the Midwest of the United States. Sources Peer-reviewed literature was the main source of data and information to construct this review. Synthesis Dry matter intake and feed conversion efficiency drive enteric CH4 production (g/d) and intensity (g/kg of milk), respectively. Dietary fiber and lipids influence enteric CH4 and dietary protein influences manure N2O. In the manure management chain, long-term storage of unprocessed liquid manure is a major source of GHG emissions, but the adoption of manure solid–liquid separation and anaerobic digestion substantially reduce the carbon balance of a farm. Amount, timing, and application mode of nitrogen fertilizer are keys to reducing N2O emission from fields. Reduced or no till, winter crop, and perennial crops increase soil OM content and reduce field CO2 losses. Variation in on-farm GHG emissions, which averaged 1.1 kg of CO2-eq per kilogram of milk, was associated more with specific management practices than with farm size or dairy system. Conclusions and Applications Adopting best nutritional, cropping, and manure management practices may reduce substantially on-farm GHG emissions in all dairy systems. Modeling and assessment methods must be improved to better account for interactions among system components and co-products of milk production.

• Publication year

  2019

• Venue

  Applied Animal Science

• Publication date

  2019-04-01

• Fields of study

  Agricultural and Food Sciences, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.15232/AAS.2018-01803
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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