Search

The research in this report examines the effect of manure digestion on the carbon footprint of a dairy farm by means of a desk study and a C flow model with different scenarios. Based on the results, a number of perspectives of action for the farmer are outlined to reduce methane emissions.This study was financed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food quality and FrieslandCampina. Het onderzoek in deze rapportage gaat in op het effect van mestvergisting op de carbon footprint van een melkveebedrijf middels een deskstudie en een rekenmodel met verschillende scenario’s. Aan de hand van de uitkomsten worden enkele handelingsperspectieven voor de veehouder geschetst om de methaanemissies te reduceren. Deze studie is uitgevoerd in opdracht van het Ministerie van Landbouw, Natuur en Voedselkwaliteit en FrieslandCampina.

In het project Koeien & Kansen (K&K) werken melkveehouders, onderzoekers en adviseurs samen aan het verbeteren van de milieuprestaties, zonder verlies aan inkomen. Het verhogen van de mineralenbenutting krijgt hierbij veel aandacht. Vanaf 2014 heeft het project met het thema ‘water’ extra focus gekregen. Dus extra aandacht voor doelen van de Kaderrichtlijn Water, maar ook voor voldoende kwalitatief goed drinkwater voor het vee en het beperken van nat- en droogteschade.

Since the 1980s, efforts have been made to develop sensors that measure a parameter from an individual cow. The development started with individual cow recognition and was followed by sensors that measure the electrical conductivity of milk and pedometers that measure activity. Some sensors like activity meters, electrical conductivity, weight floors and somatic cell count sensors are commercially available. Adoption has in general been low and mainly driven by the AMS, with a clear exception for estrus detection. In practice, the economic benefits of using sensor systems has not been proven. So, to make sensors live up to their full potential there is a need for research to shift from technical development towards practical applications and integration with operational farm management. Estrus detection sensors can have a good detection performance and are currently applied by farmers in practice, therefore this thesis focusses on sensors that support reproductive management. The main objective of this thesis is to study the utility of sensor technology to support reproductive management on dairy farms. This main objective was split in five sub objectives that each study a part of the main objective and were discussed in the separate chapters of this thesis. We demonstrated that utility of sensors for reproductive management can be found in economic benefits (estrus and calving detection), reduction of labor (calving and estrus detection) and more detailed management information (prognosis of insemination success). So, automated estrus detection aids reproductive management. From this thesis the following conclusions can be drawn: The developed theoretical framework describes four levels of sensor development, which should all be included in proper development of sensor systems. The literature review showed that no studies developed sensor systems with regard to management and decision support. It was possible to improve the prediction of the start of calving compared to a model that only uses the expected calving date. However, predicting the start of calving within an hour was not possible with a high sensitivity and specificity. There was financial merit in the use of calving detection, because the sensor system enables more timely intervention by the farmer. The uncertainty about the positive effects was large, which caused a wide range in the simulated financial benefits. Investment in a sensor for estrus detection was on average profitable with a return on investment of 11%. Profitability was influenced most by the heuristic culling rules and the expected increase of the estrus detection rate between detection by visual observation and the sensor. Routinely collected farm data can be used to estimate a prognosis on insemination success and be used to determine whether an individual cow has a higher or lower than average likelihood of insemination success. Integration of this prognostic model with an estrus detection sensor has potential. Currently farmers only adopt sensors for estrus detection or because they were standard with an AMS. A reason for this is that sensor systems do not produce clear information for farmers. Sensor technology should be focused on management support of applications. Labor benefits of sensors are important for adoption of sensors by farmers, farmers value flexibility, increased family time and less physical workload as benefits. However, economic evaluations of technical solutions are unable to quantify these benefits. Sensor research should consider the preference of farmers regarding labor. For the appraisal of sensor technology new methods to value labor benefits of sensor are needed. Furthermore, in sensor development societal acceptance should be an important consideration. Animal rights activists may frame the use of sensors as a form of industrialized farming. Only using technical arguments and considerations to explain the benefits of sensors will hamper the societal acceptance of modern dairy farming. Application of sensors on dairy farms should be communicated smartly to society in terms that relate the values of citizens.

Dairy in Europe has undergone many changes in the last few years—the abolition of milk production quotas being a fundamental one. This study explores these changes in relation to the sustained social and environmental viability of the sector and how dairy processors' sustainability programs are a part of that. Regime change as outlined in transition theory enhanced through a sociological approach on actors informed this research. More specifically, the notion of obligatory passage points was used to explore the mechanisms through which dominant actors make certain actions mandatory and reify their status as indispensable. The thesis consists of three case studies: the dairy sectors in the Netherlands, Ireland and the United Kingdom. The cases trace the evolution of all sectors since the post-war era, outlining the dominant logic that has guided its development. The sustainability programs of three dairy processors—located in each of the case countries—are also part of the analysis. Data was collected through document analysis and semi-structured interviews. The analysis shows that the post-war logic based on the increase of scale and intensification of dairying has continued to shape the development of the sector through today. While the visible impacts of intensive dairy have led to adaptations to the dominant rules and practices, these changes have not been fundamental in nature. The analysis of dairy processors and their sustainability programs revealed that these programs can be an additional tool for compliance to legal standards and the alleviation of pressing societal concerns. However, processors address social and environmentally relevant dairy-related challenges when an effective link to profit can be established. These programs have been unable to ensure that the dairy sector operates within established environmental limits and societal expectations, while providing a stable livelihood for farmers. This research contributes to the understanding of sustainability (agri-food) transitions by identifying the mechanisms through which the regime adapts to the shifting environment and dominant actors strive for their own continuity. It also adds to the debate about the role that incumbent actors can have in sustainability transitions—their involvement is important but they are unable to guide such processes. This study advances the empirical ground in sustainability transition studies by focusing on systems in which change is less likely to be technologically driven and where social change plays a larger role. Finally, this thesis connects past development, current challenges, and present engagement in a discussion about the future development of the dairy sector; this adds to the further conceptualization of the complexity and co-evolutionary nature of sustainability transitions.

Production of food contributes to climate change and other forms of environmental impact. Input data used in environmental impact assessment models, such as life cycle assessment (LCA) and nutrient balance (NB) analysis, may vary due to seasonal changes, geographical conditions or socio-economic factors (i.e. natural variability). Moreover, input data may be uncertain, due to measurement errors and observational errors that exist around modelling of emissions and technical parameters (i.e. epistemic uncertainty). Although agricultural activities required for food production are prone to natural variability and epistemic uncertainty, very few case studies in LCA and NB analysis made a thorough examination of the effects of variability and uncertainty. This thesis aimed to enhance understanding the effects of variability and uncertainty on the results, by means of uncertainty and sensitivity analysis. Uncertainty analysis refers to the estimation of the uncertainty attribute of a model output using the uncertainty attributes of the model in- puts. There are three types of sensitivity analyses: (I) a local sensitivity analysis addresses what happens to the output when input parameters are changed, i.e. the intrinsic model behaviour of a parameter; (II) a screening analysis addresses what happens to the output based on the un- certainty range of the different input parameters; and (III) a global sensitivity analysis addresses how much the uncertainty around each input parameter contributes to the output variance. Both the screening analysis and the global sensitivity analysis combine the intrinsic model behaviour with the information of uncertainty around input parameters. Applying uncertainty analysis and sensitivity analysis can help to reduce the efforts for data collection, support the development of mitigation strategies and improve overall reliability, leading to more informed decision making in environmental impact assessment models. Including uncertainty in environmental impact assessment models showed that: (1) the type of uncertainty analysis or sensitivity analysis applied depends on the question to be addressed and the available information; (2) in some cases it is no longer possible to benchmark environmental performance if epistemic uncertainty is included; (3) including correlations between input parameters during uncertainty propagation will either increase or decrease output variance, which can be predicted beforehand; (4) under specific characteristics of the input parameters, ignoring correlation has a minimal effect on the model outcome. Systematically combining a local and global sensitivity analysis in environmental impact assessment models: (1) resulted in more parameters than found previously in similar studies (for the case studies discussed in this thesis); (2) allowed finding mitigation options, either based on innovations (derived from the local sensitivity analysis) or on management strategies (derived from the global sensitivity analysis); (3) showed for which parameters reliability should be improved by increasing data quality; (4) showed that reducing the (epistemic) uncertainty of the most important parameters can affect the comparison of the environmental performance.

In dit onderzoek zijn 9 agrarische melkveebedrijven in Drenthe bezocht en is samen met de betrokken agrariers besproken en geanalyseerd in hoeverre de situatie op het erf en de percelen verbeterd kan worden ten aanzien van bodem en water. Vanuit gesignaleerde knelpunten zijn maatregelen aangedragen die bij kunnen dragen aan verbetering van het bedrijfsresultaat en het watersysteem. Samen met het waterschap zijn een 6-tal type maatregelen geselecteerd waarvan de effectiviteit is berekend. Hierbij is gebruik gemaakt van modellen die op perceelsniveau de vochthuishouding, gewasopbrengst en nutrientenhuishouding simuleren. Voor ieder bedrijf zijn de resultaten van het veldbezoek, analyse en berekening van effecten opgenomen in een bedrijfswaterplan, welke voor feedback is voorgelegd aan de betreffende agrarier. Het voorliggende rapport vat de resultaten van de 9 bedrijfswaterplannen samen en geeft op hoofdlijnen aan wat de potenties zijn van maatregelen op regionaal niveau.

In 2010 the dairy farmers of Cows & Opportunities have started working on a new project goal: gaseous emissions. To continue their role as pilot farm within the future developments in the dairy sector new goals have been added to their original goals on optimizing the nitrogen en phosphorus cycle: reducing greenhouse gas emissions and ammonia. The ultimate goal for 2013 was a 30% reduction of the average greenhouse gas emission of nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4) together, relative to the average Dutch dairy farm in 1990. In addition to the reduction of greenhouse gases, a second aim was to further reduce ammonia (NH3) emissions with 10% relative to the individual farm level in 2009. In 2009 the autonomously achieved reduction on greenhouse gas emissions turned out to be 29%, and this was further improved to 31% in 2013, reaching the project goal. This improvement was reached by both a reduction of N2O and CH4. The reduction of the N2O emission reached already 56% in 2009, but unexpectedly grew to 62% in 2013, partly by an increase in production intensity (kg FPCM per ha). The reduction of CH4 emission was less substantial, starting at 12% in 2009 and fluctuating around 13% in 2010-2013. The second aim was to further reduce NH3 emissions to an average of 3.2 kg NH3 per 1000 kg FPCM (10% reduction relative to the individual farm level in 2009). This was reached in 2013, showing that this goal was realistic even while working on other project goals like CH4 reduction in parallel. The decline in the NH3 emission is mainly achieved at the project farms situated on sandy soils and peat, while the emission of project farms on clay soils stayed relatively constant. Farm-specific circumstances such as the weather and roughage quality will influence the effect of measurements, thereby causing fluctuations in the emissions over the years. Working on the reduction of gaseous emissions is however possible on the average Dutch dairy farm and may lead to a reduction of 25% relative to 1990, looking at the autonomous reduction already reach in Cows & Opportunities in 2009. Further reduction of greenhouse gas emissions will cost more effort. If 50% of the Dutch dairy farmers also reaches a decrease in NH3 emission in 2020 comparable to the farmers in Cows & Opportunities have reached in 2013, the emission of the dairy sector wil be 3.6 kg NH3 per 1000 kg FPCM. Dairy farmers will however need high management skills, as they have to run a complex farming system and work simultaneously on a variety of financial, social and environmental objectives all-year. De melkveehouders van K&K-bedrijven zijn er ook in 2012 gemiddeld weer in geslaagd om de broeikasgasemissie en ammoniak (NH3) emissie wat verder te laten dalen ten opzichte van de periode 2009-2011. Het einddoel voor 2013 is een 30% reductie van de gemiddelde emissie van lachgas (N2O) en methaan (CH4) samen, ten opzichte van de Nederlandse situatie in 1990. In 2009 bleek de autonoom behaalde reductie op de Koeien & Kansen-bedrijven reeds 27% te zijn, in 2011 was de reductie 29%, en in 2012 is de gemiddelde reductie bijna 30% geworden.

Mineral management is an important topic on dairy farms. Gaining insight into nutrient flows from and to the farm and insight into the internal nutrient flows helps entrepreneurs to use resources more efficiently and to continue to satisfy the increasingly stringent fertiliser legislation. This report provides insight into the mineral management of pioneers among dairy farms (Koeien & Kansen [Cows & Opportunities, K&K] farms) in comparison with other dairy farms for the period 1998-2014. Viewed over an extended period, K&K farms have lower phosphate surpluses per hectare and in general greater efficiency in the cycle links of livestock and soil. From 2008, the K&K farms have no longer been producing lower nitrogen surpluses than other dairy farms. Mineralenmanagement is een belangrijk onderwerp op melkveebedrijven. Inzicht hebben in nutriëntenstromen van en naar het bedrijf en in de interne nutriëntenstromen helpt ondernemers om efficiënter om te gaan met grondstoffen en om te blijven voldoen aan de stringenter wordende mestwetgeving. Deze rapportage geeft inzicht in het mineralenmanagement van voorlopers van melkveebedrijven (Koeien & Kansen-bedrijven) in vergelijking met andere melkveebedrijven voor de periode 1998-2014. K&K-bedrijven hebben over een langere periode gezien lagere fosfaatoverschotten per hectare en in het algemeen een hogere efficiëntie in de kringloopschakels veestapel en bodem. Vanaf 2008 realiseren de K&K-bedrijven niet langer lagere stikstofoverschotten dan andere melkveebedrijven.

With the Sustainable Dairy Chain initiative, dairy businesses and dairy farmers are pursuing a futureproof and responsible dairy sector. A monitoring protocol has been developed for the theme ‘Climateneutral development’. This protocol describes the calculation methods and data sources in a systematic manner. The protocol was created following a request by the Sustainable Dairy Chain steering group and developed by LEI Wageningen UR in collaboration with the ‘Climate-neutral development’ programme team and various other stakeholders. This project was also used to make improvements to the monitor thus providing more insight into sector developments in terms of the energy objectives. Via het initiatief de Duurzame Zuivelketen streven zuivelondernemingen en melkveehouders gezamenlijk naar een toekomstbestendige en verantwoorde zuivelsector. Voor het thema ‘Klimaatneutraal ontwikkelen’ is een monitoringsprotocol ontwikkeld. Dit protocol beschrijft op systematische wijze de te hanteren rekenmethodes en databronnen. Het protocol is op verzoek van de stuurgroep Duurzame Zuivelketen opgesteld en door LEI Wageningen UR in samenwerking met het programmateam ‘Klimaatneutraal ontwikkelen’ en diverse stakeholders ontwikkeld. Ook is dit project benut om verbeteringen in de monitor door te voeren, zodat de sectorontwikkelingen op de energiedoelstellingen beter inzichtelijk zijn.

In 2010 the dairy farmers of Cows & Opportunities have started working on a new project goal: gaseous emissions. To continue their role as pilot farm within the future developments in the dairy sector new goals have been added to their original goals on optimizing the nitrogen en phosphorus cycle: reducing greenhouse gas emissions and ammonia. The ultimate goal for 2013 was a 30% reduction of the average greenhouse gas emission of nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4) together, relative to the average Dutch dairy farm in 1990. In addition to the reduction of greenhouse gases, a second aim was to further reduce ammonia (NH3) emissions with 10% relative to the individual farm level in 2009. In 2009 the autonomously achieved reduction on greenhouse gas emissions turned out to be 29%, and this was further improved to 31% in 2013, reaching the project goal. This improvement was reached by both a reduction of N2O and CH4. The reduction of the N2O emission reached already 56% in 2009, but unexpectedly grew to 62% in 2013, partly by an increase in production intensity (kg FPCM per ha). The reduction of CH4 emission was less substantial, starting at 12% in 2009 and fluctuating around 13% in 2010-2013. The second aim was to further reduce NH3 emissions to an average of 3.2 kg NH3 per 1000 kg FPCM (10% reduction relative to the individual farm level in 2009). This was reached in 2013, showing that this goal was realistic even while working on other project goals like CH4 reduction in parallel. The decline in the NH3 emission is mainly achieved at the project farms situated on sandy soils and peat, while the emission of project farms on clay soils stayed relatively constant. Farm-specific circumstances such as the weather and roughage quality will influence the effect of measurements, thereby causing fluctuations in the emissions over the years. Working on the reduction of gaseous emissions is however possible on the average Dutch dairy farm and may lead to a reduction of 25% relative to 1990, looking at the autonomous reduction already reach in Cows & Opportunities in 2009. Further reduction of greenhouse gas emissions will cost more effort. If 50% of the Dutch dairy farmers also reaches a decrease in NH3 emission in 2020 comparable to the farmers in Cows & Opportunities have reached in 2013, the emission of the dairy sector wil be 3.6 kg NH3 per 1000 kg FPCM. Dairy farmers will however need high management skills, as they have to run a complex farming system and work simultaneously on a variety of financial, social and environmental objectives all-year.

In het project Koeien & Kansen (K&K) werken melkveehouders, onderzoekers en adviseurs samen aan het verbeteren van de milieuprestaties, zonder verlies aan inkomen. Het verhogen van de mineralenbenutting krijgt hierbij veel aandacht. Vanaf 2014 heeft het project met het thema ‘water’ extra focus gekregen. Dus extra aandacht voor doelen van de Kaderrichtlijn Water, maar ook voor voldoende kwalitatief goed drinkwater voor het vee en het beperken van nat- en droogteschade.