Assessment of the carbon footprint of four commercial dairy production systems in Australia using an integrated farm system model

Abstract

Integrated farm system model (IFSM) is a cost effective and efficient method of estimating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from dairy farms and analyzing how management strategies affect these emissions. An IFSM (DairyGHG model) was employed in this study to predict the GHG emission and assess the carbon footprints of four dairy farms in Southeast Queensland, Australia. Four representative commercial farms were selected: Farm 1 (220 cows; Jersey), Farm 2 (460 cows; Holstein Friesian), Farm 3 (850 cows; Holstein Friesian) and Farm 4 (434 cows; Holstein Friesian). The animal emission contribution to carbon footprints for Farm 1, 2, 3 and 4 were 54.2, 60.0, 59.6 and 38.6 % respectively for total output. Likewise the manure emission contribution to carbon footprints for Farm 1, 2, 3 and 4 were 30.6, 29.0, 29.0 and 58.3 % respectively. On the basis of per kg of energy corrected milk the amount of GHG produced for Farm 1, 2, 3 and 4 are 0.39 kg CO2Eq, 0.64 kg CO2Eq, 0.54 kg CO2Eq and 1.35 kg CO2Eq respectively. The method and database developed for these dairy farm GHG assessments may be considered an important step towards a harmonized methodology for the quantification of emissions in dairy farms.