Estimation of Carbon Footprint in Dairy Cattle Farms of Southern Italy
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI SASSARI SCUOLA DI DOTTORATO DI RICERCA Scienze e Biotecnologie dei Sistemi Agrari e Forestali e delle Produzioni Alimentari Indirizzo di Scienze e Tecnologie Zootecniche Ciclo XXVI Estimation of carbon footprint in dairy cattle farms of Southern Italy dr.ssa Maria Gabriella Serra Direttore della Scuola prof.ssa Alba Pusino Referente di Indirizzo prof. Nicolò P.P. Macciotta Docente Guida dr. Alberto S. Atzori Tutor prof. Antonello Cannas Anno accademico 2012- 2013 A mia Madre, a mie Sorelle, e ad Alessandro, con tanto affetto e gratitudine “S’eliche non bocata castanza” Acknowledgments During my PhD I worked with a great number of people. Each one of them participated in a different way in my work, and it is a pleasure for me to express all my gratitude to them in my acknowledgments. In the first place, I would like to express my deep and sincere gratitude to my supervisor Dr. Alberto S. Atzori. His wide knowledge, great patience, constant help, and friendship were fundamental for the realization of this thesis. I am grateful to Professor Antonello Cannas for his personal guidance, detailed and constructive comments, and trust in me during these three years. I gratefully thank Professor Giuseppe Pulina for his precious advices and support. I express my gratitude to Prof. Nicolò P.P. Macciotta, Prof. Lelia Murgia, Prof. Francesco Giunta, Dr. Giovanni Pruneddu, Dr. Gianni Battaccone, Dr. Anna Nudda, and to Dr. Antonio Pais for their support and scientific help. I would reserve a special thanks to Prof. Salvatore P.G. Rassu for his advices and friendship, and for everything he taught me during my bachelor; his teachings proved to be very useful during my PhD. I am also grateful to Prof. Laura Marongiu for her friendly help and complicity. I gratefully thank Dr. Corrado Dimauro and Dr. Massimo Cellesi for their invaluable help in statistical analysis, and for making me love this so much feared topic. My sincere thanks goes also to my friends Gavino Biddau and Emilio Usai for their constant presence, friendship, and indispensable help in bureaucratic matters. I am also grateful to Dr. Rita Marras and to Ms. Marina Pischedda for their constant help and support. A special and big acknowledgment to Dr. Ana H.D. Francesconi for her friendship, infinite patience and understanding, and indispensable help for the editing of my thesis. Maria Gabriella Serra – “Estimation of carbon footprint in dairy cattle farms of Southern Italy” Tesi di Dottorato in Scienze dei Sistemi Agrari e Forestali e delle Produzioni Alimentari Indirizzo Scienze e Tecnologie Zootecniche – Università degli Studi di Sassari Antonio Mazza, Antonio Fenu, and Gesumino Spanu for their collaboration and friendship. Roberto Rubattu, Dr. Roberta Boe and Dr. Maria Grazia Manca who taught me the basic techniques for chemical analyses. I also thank my colleagues of the Section of Animal Science: Dr. Oscar Boaventura Neto, Dr. Gabriele Marras, Dr. Giuseppe Todde, Dr. Elisa Ortu, Dr. Osman Karimi, Dr. Rossella Manca, Dr. Maura Lovicu, Dr. Claudio Carzedda, Dr. Gianfranco Gaias, Dr. Maria Annunziata Pintus, Dr. Elia Pintus, Dr. Matteo Sini, Dr. Sara Saba, Dr. Fabio Correddu, Dr. Antonio Puledda, Dr. Caterina Canalis, Dr. Giustino Gaspa, Dr. Marco Giuseppe Pinna and Dr. Alessandra Marzano for their collaboration and friendship. I convey a special acknowledgement to Professor Luis Orlindo Tedeschi for his hospitality and for the precious advices and teachings that he gave me during my period abroad in the Texas A&M University. A special thanks to Luigi, Mozart, Michele, Uyara, Marcia and Ana Virginia who made my American experience unforgettable. I would like to reserve a special thank to the group that collaborated in the project “Indagine sulle emissioni di gas serra in aziende bovine da latte” for their professional and constant support: the director of the Filiera A.Q. s.r.l. Dr. Gianpiero Calzolari, and the responsibles Dr. Giampaolo Zanirato and Dr. Andrea Serraino; the director Dr. Francesco Casula and the technicians of the Cooperative 3A, Dr. Mauro Panetto, Dr. Antonio Schintu, Dr. Roberto Cocco, Dr. Agata Marongiu and Dr. Silvia Fiori; the director Dr. Andrea Breveglieri, and the technicians of the Cooperative Granlatte, Dr. Filippo Nettis and Dr. Marcello Pinto; the director Dr. Angela Zarro, and the technician of the Cooperative Asso.Lac., Dr. Arnaldo Perfetti; the director Dr. Salvatore Cascone, and the technician of the Cooperative Progetto Natura, Dr. Giovanni Capuzzello, and all Maria Gabriella Serra – “Estimation of carbon footprint in dairy cattle farms of Southern Italy” Tesi di Dottorato in Scienze dei Sistemi Agrari e Forestali e delle Produzioni Alimentari Indirizzo Scienze e Tecnologie Zootecniche – Università degli Studi di Sassari the farmers of the 4 Cooperatives for the precious time that they have reserved to us and to our project. My loving thanks to my mother and my sisters for their loving support, and to all my friends for their indirect contribution to my PhD. Last, but certainly far from least, I would like to acknowledge my wonderful boyfriend Alessandro for his constant help, understanding, and accurate and interesting discussions about the work of my thesis. Without his encouragement it would have been impossible for me to finish this work. Maria Gabriella Serra – “Estimation of carbon footprint in dairy cattle farms of Southern Italy” Tesi di Dottorato in Scienze dei Sistemi Agrari e Forestali e delle Produzioni Alimentari Indirizzo Scienze e Tecnologie Zootecniche – Università degli Studi di Sassari ABSTRACT This thesis focused on the global warming potential of dairy farms, using a sample of 285 farms which are members of 4 milk cooperatives operating in Southern Italy (3A - Sardinia, Granarolo - Puglia and Basilicata, Asso.La.C. - Calabria, Progetto Natura - Sicilia). The first study estimated the carbon footprint (CF) of milk collected from the member farms of the cooperatives and defined the incidence of the main emission sources in respect to total emissions. A weighted mean of 1.35 kg of CO2eq per average kg of fat-and-protein corrected milk (FPCM) collected by the cooperative was obtained (1.66 kg as farm mean). Farms with the highest milk production level per cow (MYL) and high feed efficiency use had the lowest values of CF. The second study compared 8 approaches (different in number and type of predictors) to estimate enteric emissions for the same farms. All approaches were accurate for methane quantification, although more detailed approaches could be more informative for high-MYL farms. The third study analyzed the developed database with a multivariate approach (discriminant analysis). The most limiting factors for good environmental performance were herd profile, nutritional efficiency and diet digestibility, especially in farms with low MYL, and agronomic efficiency and herd management parameters in farms with high MYL. Further investigations on the same data is needed to identify the best strategies for mitigating GHG emissions in the studied cooperatives. Maria Gabriella Serra – “Estimation of carbon footprint in dairy cattle farms of Southern Italy” Tesi di Dottorato in Scienze dei Sistemi Agrari e Forestali e delle Produzioni Alimentari Indirizzo Scienze e Tecnologie Zootecniche – Università degli Studi di Sassari Table of contents INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 1 1.1. The Ecological footprint: a new method to estimate the environmental impact of human activities ........................................................................................................................................ 1 1.1.1. Estimation of Ecological footprint ...................................................................................... 5 1.1.2. Estimation of the environmental impact of a product by Life Cycle Assessment .............. 7 1.2. Climate Change and Global Warming: the responsibility of human activities .................... 11 1.2.1. Origin and amount of greenhouse gas emissions .............................................................. 13 1.2.2. Environmental impact of the agricultural sector ............................................................... 17 1.2.3. Ecological footprint of the agricultural sector................................................................... 18 1.2.4. LCA application on agricultural systems .......................................................................... 22 1.3. The Carbon footprint of the dairy sector .............................................................................. 22 1.3.1. GHG emissions sources in the dairy sector ....................................................................... 24 1.3.2. Physiological basis of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide production ................ 27 1.3.2.1. Carbon dioxide production ............................................................................................. 27 1.3.2.2. Methane production ....................................................................................................... 29 1.3.2.3 Nitrous oxide production ................................................................................................. 34 1.4. Estimation of Carbon footprint ............................................................................................ 40 1.4.1. In vivo estimation of methane ..........................................................................................