Carbon footprint, non-renewable energy and land use of dual-purpose cattle systems in Colombia using a life cycle assessment approach

Yield gap analysis to identify attainable milk and meat productivities and the potential for greenhouse gas emissions mitigation in cattle systems of Colombia

“…The contribution of animal sources such as enteric fermentation and excretions deposited on pastures to total GHGE emissions was high, a common finding reported for cattle systems where CH 4 and N 2 O are the most critical GHGE requiring mitigation actions (Gerber et al, 2013). A similar pattern was reported for beef cattle systems and grazing dairy production systems in Latin America, where emissions from bovines represented most of the total GHGE (Cerri et al, 2016;Costantini et al, 2020;de Léis et al, 2015;González-Quintero et al, 2021b, 2021aLizarralde et al, 2014;Ribeiro-Filho et al, 2020). As a general trend in all the productive orientations, the contribution to total GHGE of off-farm emissions from inputs manufacturing was low when compared to more intensive farming systems located in developed countries (Lesschen et al, 2011;Pelletier et al, 2010).…”

“…In addition, in specialized dairy systems, the groups of best farms showed CFs close to those reported in high productive farms in Denmark, Ireland, Italy, UK, and Uruguay characterized by high input use, superior animal breeds and high-quality diets (high digestibility and crude protein content) (Battini et al, 2016;Kristensen et al, 2011;Lizarralde et al, 2014;O'Brien et al, 2015;Salvador et al, 2017;Styles et al, 2018b). Similarly, the CFs obtained by groups of best farms in the DPS were lower than those obtained by climate-smart DPS in Nicaragua and the most productive DPS in Colombia and Costa Rica (Gaitán et al, 2016;González-Quintero et al, 2021b;Mazzetto et al, 2020). Considering the above, closing the existing meat and milk yield gaps would make most farms achieve carbon footprints similar to those reported by high-productive beef and dairy systems in different regions of the world, which gives an insight about the potential for reducing GHGE intensities in the Colombian cattle systems.…”

“…The inverse correlation between GHGE intensity and productivity of beef and dairy cattle production systems has been documented by several studies at a global scale (Gerber et al, 2011(Gerber et al, , 2010(Gerber et al, , 2013, and at regional level in Latin American (de Léis et al, 2015;Gaitán et al, 2016;González-Quintero et al, 2021a, 2021bMorel et al, 2016;Nieto et al, 2018), which indicates the strong influence of increasing the meat and milk production on the dilution of GHGE. This study makes a further contribution to these findings, as we found that considerable GHGE mitigation potentials are achievable by the less productive farms when increase their productivity.…”

The sustainable transformation of the Colombian cattle sector: Assessing its circularity

“…Fertilization in the Colombian cattle context is mainly linked to the fertilization of pastures, as more than 95% of cattle farms are grass-based [17]. Most Colombian cattle systems are managed under extensive conditions and are characterized by a low use of fertilizers [18,48]. However, it is known that fertilization of pastures, combined with other management measurements such as rotational grazing result in improved systems that can intensify productivity per unit of land and, hence, break the extensive model that predominates currently [48].…”

“…Worldwide, highly productive specialized dairy systems depend on high nutrient quality ingredients (i.e., concentrates based on cereals, grains, and legumes) to sustain the high milk yields. LCA studies usually conclude that intensive systems are the ones producing milk with the lowest footprint [48,56,57], as usually the GHG emissions per unit of product are lower compared to other less intensified systems. Under this production-oriented way of expressing the sustainability of food products (i.e., expressing impacts per kg of product), high-yielding systems will be favored [58].…”