Forage systems for less GHG emission and more soil carbon sink in continental and Mediterranean agricultural areas

Dairy farm CARALE

Carale dairy farm is located in Austis (Mandrolisai area) in the province of . The 190 Sarda dairy sheep produce milk which is sold to a dairy industry of the province of (Central –Centro Trasformazione Latte s.r.l.) for the production of Pecorino Romano and Pecorino Sardo D.O.P cheeses and ricotta cheese. Sixty percent of 70 total hectares (ha) are occupied by permanent pasture and woodland, whereas the remaining 30 % is cultivated with mixed grass meadow and meadow pasture which are mainly used for grazing. Sheep graze in natural pasture often typical of the silvo-pastoral system; the feed self-sufficiency is usually lower than in other areas. In the farm there is a farmhouse offering accommodation, recreational activities and Sardinia traditional food.

Forage4climate is a LIFE Climate Change Mitigation Project

The four-year project aims to demonstrate how agricultural systems related to milk production can contribute to the mitigation of climate change through:

LIFE15 CCM/IT/000039 forage4climate.crpa.it • the adoption of good agricultural and farming practices that can be useful to limit GHG emissions and to maintain or increase carbon sink in soils (arable land, meadows and pastures) used to produce forages for ruminants (cattle, sheep and goats); • the development and dissemination of tools for accounting carbon stock and GHG emissions in order to evaluate the effects of mitigation interventions. Today the baseline values of GHG emissions are 1.2 kg of

CO2 equivalents for cow’s milk and 3.2 kg of CO2 equivalents for sheep and goat’s milk in the areas of the project. However, Forage4Climate believes that it is possible to reduce the average carbon footprint of the production of 1 kg of milk by 5%. This would represent a reduction in The actions of the project will take place in 3 Regions of the Po Valley (Piedmont, Lombardy and Emilia - Romagna), in Sardinia and in 4 emissions of 740,000 tons of CO2 equivalents per year for Greek regions (Peloponnese, Thessaly, Sterea Ellada and Epirus) milk production in and Greece.