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Henn D, Duffy C, Humphreys J, Gibbons J, Byrne KA, Styles D. Cattle production strategies to deliver protein with less land and lower environmental impact. J Environ Manage 2024; 356:120569. [PMID: 38484594 DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.120569] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/19/2023] [Revised: 02/08/2024] [Accepted: 03/06/2024] [Indexed: 04/07/2024]
Abstract
Global land resources are over-exploited and natural habitats are declining, often driven by expanding livestock production. In Ireland, pastureland for grazing cattle and sheep account for circa 60% of terrestrial land use. The agriculture, forestry and other land use sector (AFOLU) is responsible for 44% of national greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. A new Grassland Animal response Model (GLAM) was developed to relate livestock-cohort grass and feed requirements to farm-grassland system areas, enhancing environmental assessment of prospective AFOLU configurations. Although land conversion targets are often well-defined, they tend to lack a clear definition of where land sparing can occur. Through analyses of 10 scenarios of milk and beef production and management strategies, we found that displacing beef cows with dairy cows can increase national protein output while sparing up to 0.75 million ha (18%) of grassland (albeit with a minor increase in overseas land requirement for additional concentrate feed). Reducing slaughter age, increasing exports of male dairy calves and increasing grassland use efficiency on beef farms each achieved between 0.19 and 0.32 million ha of land sparing. Sexed semen to achieve more favourable male-female birth ratios had a minor impact. GHG emissions, ammonia emissions and nutrient leaching were only reduced substantially when overall cattle numbers declined, confirming the need for cattle reductions to achieve environmental objectives. Nonetheless, application of GLAM shows potential for improved grass and cattle management to spare good quality land suitable for productive forestry and wetland restoration. This change is urgently needed to generate scalable carbon dioxide removals from the land sector in Ireland, and globally.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel Henn
- Bernal Institute, School of Engineering, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland; Ryan Institute, School of Biological & Chemical Sciences, University of Galway, Galway, Ireland.
| | - Colm Duffy
- Ryan Institute, School of Biological & Chemical Sciences, University of Galway, Galway, Ireland
| | - James Humphreys
- Animal and Grassland Research and Innovation Centre, Teagasc, Moorepark, Fermoy, Ireland
| | - James Gibbons
- School of Natural Sciences, Bangor University, Bangor, Wales, UK
| | - Kenneth A Byrne
- Department of Biological Sciences, School of Natural Sciences, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland
| | - David Styles
- Bernal Institute, School of Engineering, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland; Ryan Institute, School of Biological & Chemical Sciences, University of Galway, Galway, Ireland
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Jebari A, Pereyra-Goday F, Kumar A, Collins AL, Rivero MJ, McAuliffe GA. Feasibility of mitigation measures for agricultural greenhouse gas emissions in the UK. A systematic review. Agron Sustain Dev 2023; 44:2. [PMID: 38161803 PMCID: PMC10754757 DOI: 10.1007/s13593-023-00938-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 11/24/2023] [Indexed: 01/03/2024]
Abstract
The UK Government has set an ambitious target of achieving a national "net-zero" greenhouse gas economy by 2050. Agriculture is arguably placed at the heart of achieving net zero, as it plays a unique role as both a producer of GHG emissions and a sector that has the capacity via land use to capture carbon (C) when managed appropriately, thus reducing the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. Agriculture's importance, particularly in a UK-specific perspective, which is also applicable to many other temperate climate nations globally, is that the majority of land use nationwide is allocated to farming. Here, we present a systematic review based on peer-reviewed literature and relevant "grey" reports to address the question "how can the agricultural sector in the UK reduce, or offset, its direct agricultural emissions at the farm level?" We considered the implications of mitigation measures in terms of food security and import reliance, energy, environmental degradation, and value for money. We identified 52 relevant studies covering major foods produced and consumed in the UK. Our findings indicate that many mitigation measures can indeed contribute to net zero through GHG emissions reduction, offsetting, and bioenergy production, pending their uptake by farmers. While the environmental impacts of mitigation measures were covered well within the reviewed literature, corresponding implications regarding energy, food security, and farmer attitudes towards adoption received scant attention. We also provide an open-access, informative, and comprehensive dataset for agri-environment stakeholders and policymakers to identify the most promising mitigation measures. This research is of critical value to researchers, land managers, and policymakers as an interim guideline resource while more quantitative evidence becomes available through the ongoing lab-, field-, and farm-scale trials which will improve the reliability of agricultural sustainability modelling in the future. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13593-023-00938-0.
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Affiliation(s)
- Asma Jebari
- Net Zero and Resilient Farming, Rothamsted Research, North Wyke, Okehampton, EX20 2SB Devon UK
| | - Fabiana Pereyra-Goday
- Instituto Nacional de Investigacion Agropecuaria (INIA), Ruta 8 km 281, Treinta y Tres, postcode 33000 Montevideo, Uruguay
| | - Atul Kumar
- Net Zero and Resilient Farming, Rothamsted Research, North Wyke, Okehampton, EX20 2SB Devon UK
| | - Adrian L. Collins
- Net Zero and Resilient Farming, Rothamsted Research, North Wyke, Okehampton, EX20 2SB Devon UK
| | - M. Jordana Rivero
- Net Zero and Resilient Farming, Rothamsted Research, North Wyke, Okehampton, EX20 2SB Devon UK
| | - Graham A. McAuliffe
- Net Zero and Resilient Farming, Rothamsted Research, North Wyke, Okehampton, EX20 2SB Devon UK
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Abdelrahman M, Wang W, Shaukat A, Kulyar MFEA, Lv H, Abulaiti A, Yao Z, Ahmad MJ, Liang A, Yang L. Nutritional Modulation, Gut, and Omics Crosstalk in Ruminants. Animals (Basel) 2022; 12:ani12080997. [PMID: 35454245 PMCID: PMC9029867 DOI: 10.3390/ani12080997] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/10/2022] [Revised: 03/31/2022] [Accepted: 04/05/2022] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Simple Summary Over the last decade, animal nutrition science has been significantly developed, supported by the great advancements in molecular technologies. For scientists, the present "feedomics and nutrigenomics" era continues to evolve and shape how research is designed, performed, and understood. The new omics interpretations have established a new point of view for the nutrition–gene interaction, integrating more comprehensive findings from animal physiology, molecular genetics, and biochemistry. In the ruminant model, this modern approach addresses rumen microbes as a critical intermediate that can deepen the studies of diet–gut interaction with host genomics. The present review discusses nutrigenomics’ and feedomics’ potential contribution to diminishing the knowledge gap about the DNA cellular activities of different nutrients. It also presents how nutritional management can influence the epigenetic pathway, considering the production type, life stage, and species for more sustainable ruminant nutrition strategies. Abstract Ruminant nutrition has significantly revolutionized a new and prodigious molecular approach in livestock sciences over the last decade. Wide-spectrum advances in DNA and RNA technologies and analysis have produced a wealth of data that have shifted the research threshold scheme to a more affluent level. Recently, the published literature has pointed out the nutrient roles in different cellular genomic alterations among different ruminant species, besides the interactions with other factors, such as age, type, and breed. Additionally, it has addressed rumen microbes within the gut health and productivity context, which has made interpreting homogenous evidence more complicated. As a more systematic approach, nutrigenomics can identify how genomics interacts with nutrition and other variables linked to animal performance. Such findings should contribute to crystallizing powerful interpretations correlating feeding management with ruminant production and health through genomics. This review will present a road-mapping discussion of promising trends in ruminant nutrigenomics as a reference for phenotype expression through multi-level omics changes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mohamed Abdelrahman
- Key Lab of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of Ministry of Education, Huazhong Agriculture University, Wuhan 430070, China; (M.A.); (W.W.); (A.S.); (H.L.); (A.A.); (Z.Y.); (M.J.A.); (A.L.)
- Animal Production Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Assuit University, Asyut 71515, Egypt
| | - Wei Wang
- Key Lab of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of Ministry of Education, Huazhong Agriculture University, Wuhan 430070, China; (M.A.); (W.W.); (A.S.); (H.L.); (A.A.); (Z.Y.); (M.J.A.); (A.L.)
| | - Aftab Shaukat
- Key Lab of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of Ministry of Education, Huazhong Agriculture University, Wuhan 430070, China; (M.A.); (W.W.); (A.S.); (H.L.); (A.A.); (Z.Y.); (M.J.A.); (A.L.)
| | | | - Haimiao Lv
- Key Lab of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of Ministry of Education, Huazhong Agriculture University, Wuhan 430070, China; (M.A.); (W.W.); (A.S.); (H.L.); (A.A.); (Z.Y.); (M.J.A.); (A.L.)
| | - Adili Abulaiti
- Key Lab of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of Ministry of Education, Huazhong Agriculture University, Wuhan 430070, China; (M.A.); (W.W.); (A.S.); (H.L.); (A.A.); (Z.Y.); (M.J.A.); (A.L.)
| | - Zhiqiu Yao
- Key Lab of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of Ministry of Education, Huazhong Agriculture University, Wuhan 430070, China; (M.A.); (W.W.); (A.S.); (H.L.); (A.A.); (Z.Y.); (M.J.A.); (A.L.)
| | - Muhammad Jamil Ahmad
- Key Lab of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of Ministry of Education, Huazhong Agriculture University, Wuhan 430070, China; (M.A.); (W.W.); (A.S.); (H.L.); (A.A.); (Z.Y.); (M.J.A.); (A.L.)
| | - Aixin Liang
- Key Lab of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of Ministry of Education, Huazhong Agriculture University, Wuhan 430070, China; (M.A.); (W.W.); (A.S.); (H.L.); (A.A.); (Z.Y.); (M.J.A.); (A.L.)
- National Center for International Research on Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction (NCIRAGBR), Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China
| | - Liguo Yang
- Key Lab of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of Ministry of Education, Huazhong Agriculture University, Wuhan 430070, China; (M.A.); (W.W.); (A.S.); (H.L.); (A.A.); (Z.Y.); (M.J.A.); (A.L.)
- National Center for International Research on Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction (NCIRAGBR), Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China
- Correspondence: ; Tel.: +86-138-7105-6592
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Bai Y, Guo C, Li S, Degen AA, Ahmad AA, Wang W, Zhang T, Huang M, Shang Z. Instability of decoupling livestock greenhouse gas emissions from economic growth in livestock products in the Tibetan highland. J Environ Manage 2021; 287:112334. [PMID: 33735676 DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.112334] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/01/2020] [Revised: 03/07/2021] [Accepted: 03/07/2021] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Livestock production is the major livelihood for a growing local population on the Tibetan plateau. However, government policy is to reduce the number of livestock due to the large quantities of greenhouse gasses (GHG), in particular methane, produced by ruminants and the degradation of the grasslands. For this policy to be effective, with little effect on livelihoods, there should be a decoupling of GHG emissions from economic growth of livestock products. This study examined the synergetic effects of policies, extreme climate events and GHG emissions from livestock at the headwater region of the Yellow River since 1980. Optimization models of GHG emissions efficiency and drivers were developed and parameterized. Trade-offs between GHG emissions from livestock and economic growth from livestock, determined by the decoupling model, showed that from 1980 to 2015: 1) the GHG emissions decreased by 39%; (2) CH4 emissions from livestock decreased by 33%, and yaks emitted the most (accounted for 99.6%) among livestock; (3) N2O emissions decreased by 34%; (4) trade-offs between livestock GHG emissions and grassland uptake indicated that the grazing livestock system functioned as a net carbon sink; (5) the efficiency factor, especially technical efficiency, was the main driver of GHG emissions; and (6) GHG emissions from livestock were in a decoupling state from economic growth from livestock. However, decoupling has not been stable as inter-annual fluctuations have been large mainly due to extreme climatic events, such as snowstorm disasters, which indicates that the grazing system was still relatively fragile. The GHG emissions can be reduced further by mitigating CH4 emissions, and enhancing CO2 sequestration on grazed pastureland. The ongoing transformation of livestock industry development on the Tibetan plateau is associated with uncertainty under the background of global GHG mitigation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yanfu Bai
- State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystems, School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, China
| | - Cancan Guo
- State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystems, School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, China
| | - Shanshan Li
- State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystems, School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, China
| | - A Allan Degen
- Desert Animal Adaptations and Husbandry, Wyler Department of Dryland Agriculture, Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, 8410500, Israel
| | - Anum Ali Ahmad
- State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystems, School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, China
| | - Wenyin Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystems, School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, China
| | - Tao Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystems, School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, China
| | - Mei Huang
- State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystems, School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, China
| | - Zhanhuan Shang
- State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystems, School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, China; Qinghai Provincial Key Laboratory of Restoration Ecology of Cold Area, Northwest Institute of Plateau Biology, Chinese Academy of Science, Xining, 810008, China; Qinghai Provincial Key Laboratory of Adaptive Management on Alpine Grassland, Qinghai Academy of Animal and Veterinary Science, Qinghai University, Xining, 810016, China.
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Rivero MJ, Lopez-Villalobos N, Evans A, Berndt A, Cartmill A, Neal AL, McLaren A, Farruggia A, Mignolet C, Chadwick D, Styles D, McCracken D, Busch D, Martin GB, Fleming H, Sheridan H, Gibbons J, Merbold L, Eisler M, Lambe N, Rovira P, Harris P, Murphy P, Vercoe PE, Williams P, Machado R, Takahashi T, Puech T, Boland T, Ayala W, Lee MRF. Key traits for ruminant livestock across diverse production systems in the context of climate change: perspectives from a global platform of research farms. Reprod Fertil Dev 2021. [DOI: 10.1071/rd20205] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/14/2023] Open
Abstract
Ruminant livestock are raised under diverse cultural and environmental production systems around the globe. Ruminant livestock can play a critical role in food security by supplying high-quality, nutrient-dense food with little or no competition for arable land while simultaneously improving soil health through vital returns of organic matter. However, in the context of climate change and limited land resources, the role of ruminant-based systems is uncertain because of their reputed low efficiency of feed conversion (kilogram of feed required per kilogram of product) and the production of methane as a by-product of enteric fermentation. A growing human population will demand more animal protein, which will put greater pressure on the Earth’s planetary boundaries and contribute further to climate change. Therefore, livestock production globally faces the dual challenges of mitigating emissions and adapting to a changing climate. This requires research-led animal and plant breeding and feeding strategies to optimise ruminant systems. This study collated information from a global network of research farms reflecting a variety of ruminant production systems in diverse regions of the globe. Using this information, key changes in the genetic and nutritional approaches relevant to each system were drawn that, if implemented, would help shape more sustainable future ruminant livestock systems.
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Soteriades AD, Foskolos A, Styles D, Gibbons JM. Maintaining production while reducing local and global environmental emissions in dairy farming. J Environ Manage 2020; 272:111054. [PMID: 32854875 DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2020.111054] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/19/2020] [Revised: 06/18/2020] [Accepted: 07/03/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
While milk is a major agricultural commodity, dairy farming also supports a large share of global beef production. In Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies of dairy farming systems, dairy-beef production is often ignored or 'allocated off', which may give a distorted view of production efficiencies. This study combines LCA with Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to develop an indicator of eco-efficiency for each of 738 UK dairy farms (3624 data points in 15 years) that aggregates multiple burdens and expresses them per unit of milk and dairy-beef produced. Within the DEA framework, the importance (weight) of dairy-beef relative to milk is iteratively increased to quantify the environmental losses from heavily focussing on milk-production, via e.g. higher yields per cow, with consequent lower burdens per unit of milk, yet with lower dairy-beef production levels, where burdens for beef production are externalized. Then, the relationship between DEA eco-efficiency and a series of indicators of dairy farming intensity at animal- and farm-levels was studied with Generalized Additive Models (GAM). For all sets of DEA weights (proportion of deviance explained ranged between 68% and 82%) indicate that milk yield per cow and forage area, and larger dairy herds all have a positive effect on eco-efficiency, while concentrate fed per unit of milk and the forage area both have a negative effect (p < 0.05 for all modelled relationships). These findings suggest that more intensive and consolidated dairy farms can positively impact on eco-efficiency. However, as the DEA weight for dairy-beef relative to milk increases, the relationship between environmental efficiency and farming specialization (expressed as L milk per kg dairy-beef produced) reverses from positive to negative. In conclusion, dairy-beef production is pivotal in determining the wider environmental efficiency of dairy (and ruminant food) systems, and its under-representation in efficiency studies has generated a misleading approach to meeting emission targets.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andreas D Soteriades
- School of Natural Sciences, Bangor University, Deiniol Road, Bangor, LL57 2UW, UK; Sir William Roberts Centre for Sustainable Land Use, Bangor University, Deiniol Road, Bangor, LL57 2DG, UK.
| | - Andreas Foskolos
- Department of Animal Science, Campus Gaiopolis, University of Thessaly, Larissa, 411 10, Greece; IBERS, Aberystwyth University, Ceredigion, Aberystwyth, SY23 3EB, UK.
| | - David Styles
- School of Natural Sciences, Bangor University, Deiniol Road, Bangor, LL57 2UW, UK; School of Engineering, University of Limerick, Limerick, V94 T9PX, Ireland.
| | - James M Gibbons
- School of Natural Sciences, Bangor University, Deiniol Road, Bangor, LL57 2UW, UK.
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