Life Cycle Assessment of Dairy Production Systems Including Material Cycles of Grasslands

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The environmental problems associated with dairy farms are not only local problems such as water pollution and offensive odor, but also global problems including global warming and acidification. Quantifying dairy farm's environmental problems is necessary for the disclosure of the environmental information of dairy farms. In this study, we use LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) to quantify them. LCA studies the environmental aspects and potential impacts throughout a product's life (i.e. cradle-to-grave) from raw material acquisition through to its production, use and disposal (ISO14040). We have selected Okoppe Feed Service (OFS) arid eight dairy farms, which participate in OFS for this study. The main roles of OFS are the efficient production of forage and the production of TMR (Total Mixed Ration). We investigated OFS and the dairy farms in the field in July 2002, and collected the material data of year 2001 for LCA. The dairy system of LCA is composed of OFS and the dairy farms. Environmental burdens, which are CO2, CH4, N2O, NOx, SOx, NH3, T-N acid T-P, are quantified using the maternal data and emission factors. Each environmental burden is related to environmental problems, which are global warming potential (CO2, CH4 and N2O), acidification (NOx, SOx and NH3) and eutrophication (NOx, NH3, T-N and T-P). We identify the parameters, which have the largest environmental impact (hot-spots) in the dairy system of this study, using the LCA results. The problems related to dairy farms are shown as followers ; First, there is the potential for global warming are as a result of CH4 from livestock in animal houses and N2O from manure in excreta-processing facilities (especially compost barns). Second, acidification is caused by NH3 from excreta in animal houses and excreta-processing facilities (especially compost barns). Third, eutrophication is resulting from T-N and T-P in compost barns excreta.