The Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), km 17 recta Cali-Palmira, Valle del Cauca, Colombia.
Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias, Universidad Nacional de Colombia sede Medellín, Colombia.
Sci Total Environ. 2021 Jun 15;773:145573. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.145573. Epub 2021 Feb 4.
In Colombia, the beef production chain accounts for approximately 11.6 million cattle heads and annually produces 933 million kg of the beef carcass. There are no life cycle assessment (LCA) studies that have evaluated the environmental performance of Colombian beef systems. The present study aimed to estimate the carbon footprint (CF), non-renewable energy use, and land use of 251 cow-calf and 275 fattening farms in Colombia. The study also aimed to identify the main hotspots of adverse environmental impacts and propose possible mitigation options and their cost-effectiveness. The impact categories were estimated using the 2006 IPCC and the 2019 Refinement to 2006 IPCC guidelines, databases, and locally estimated emission factors. The functional units used were 1 kg fat and protein corrected milk (FPCM) and 1 kg live weight gain (LWG), leaving the farm gate. Three methods of allocating environmental burdens to meat and milk products were applied: economic, energy, and mass allocation. The adoption of improved pastures was considered a mitigation measure, and an economic assessment was performed to estimate the relative cost-effectiveness of its establishment. A principal component multivariate analysis and a Hierarchical Clustering on Principal Components were performed. The economic allocation method assigned a greater environmental burden to meat (83%), followed by energy content (80%) and mass production (73%). The largest sources of GHG emissions were enteric fermentation and manure deposited on pasture. Both cow-calf and fattening systems had a cluster of farms with better productivity, pasture and cattle management practices, and environmental performance. The CF for meat could be reduced by 33 to 56% for cow-calf and 21 to 25% for fattening farms, by adopting improved pastures. Therefore, our results suggest that GHG emissions can be reduced by adopting improved pastures, better agricultural management practices, efficient fertilizer usage, using the optimal stocking rate, and increasing productivity.
在哥伦比亚，牛肉生产链约有 1160 万头牛，每年生产 9.33 亿公斤牛肉。目前还没有生命周期评估（LCA）研究来评估哥伦比亚牛肉系统的环境绩效。本研究旨在估计 251 个奶牛场和 275 个育肥场的碳足迹（CF）、不可再生能源使用和土地利用情况。本研究还旨在确定主要的环境影响热点，并提出可能的缓解措施及其成本效益。使用 2006 年 IPCC 和 2019 年对 2006 年 IPCC 指南的修订版、数据库和本地估算的排放因子来估算影响类别。使用离开农场的 1 公斤脂肪和蛋白质校正奶（FPCM）和 1 公斤活重增加（LWG）作为功能单位。应用了三种将环境负担分配给肉类和奶制品的方法：经济、能源和质量分配。采用改良牧场被视为一种缓解措施，并进行了经济评估，以估算其建立的相对成本效益。进行了主成分多元分析和主成分层次聚类。经济分配方法将更大的环境负担分配给肉类（83%），其次是能源含量（80%）和质量生产（73%）。温室气体排放的最大来源是瘤胃发酵和粪便在牧场上的沉积。奶牛场和育肥场都有一群具有更好生产力、牧场和牛管理实践以及环境绩效的农场。通过采用改良牧场，可分别减少奶牛场和育肥场 33%至 56%和 21%至 25%的肉类 CF。因此，我们的研究结果表明，通过采用改良牧场、更好的农业管理实践、高效肥料使用、使用最佳载畜率和提高生产力，可以减少温室气体排放。
