Comparative environmental life cycle assessment of cattle production systems

The main project aims to compare aspects of the environmental performance of different cattle production systems, ranging from conventional part housed and large-scale, fully housed dairy and beef to all-forage based production and including sub-set of organic production. The core method of analysis will apply systems-based environmental Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), using an enhanced version of the Defra-funded Cranfield model.

The main environmental impacts will include greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, water quality (e.g. eutrophication potential) and air quality (e.g. acidification potential, NOx), non-renewable resource consumption, stress weighted blue water consumption and land use. Other areas, such as biodiversity, other non-provisioning ecosystem services and social aspects are out of scope, but are being addressed in a separate RC-funded, CEH-led project (Sustainable economic and ecological grazing systems - learning from innovative practitioners, SEEGLSIP).

Additional information:

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