Smaller farm size and ruminant animals are associated with increased supply of non-provisioning ecosystem services

Abstract

To balance trade-offs between livestock’s negative environmental impacts and their positive contributions (e.g. maintaining semi-natural grasslands, varied agricultural landscapes and crop rotations), a better understanding is needed of how the supply of ecosystem services differs across farms. We analysed a suite of indicators for non-provisioning ecosystem services on a large subset of Swedish farms (71% of farms, covering 82% of agricultural land) and related these to farm type, farm size and livestock density. The analysed indicators exhibited clear geographical patterns with hotspots especially in less productive regions. Controlling for this spatial variation we still found that small-scale and ruminant farms were associated with more varied landscapes, small-scale habitats, semi-natural grasslands and better crop sequences compared to nearby farms specialised in crop production, while farms specialising in monogastric livestock were associated with less varied landscapes and inferior crop sequences. Results for cultural ecosystem services indicated that farms with more semi-natural grassland were associated with more visitors and more likely located within designated recreation or nature conservation areas.

Circularity in Europe strengthens the sustainability of the global food system

“…Reductions in grasslands offer the opportunity for rewilding to enhance biodiversity. Another alternative would be to partly maintain grassland but with low livestock densities, with the aim of contributing to multiple ecosystem services such as water cycling, carbon storage and sequestration next to biodiversity conservation 27 .…”

“…Using these by-products and waste streams as compost can reduce the need for artificial fertilizers, while if by-products and waste streams are used as feed for farm animals, inedible biomass for humans could be transformed into livestock products and manure. In both cases, ecosystem services should increase due to improved soil fertility and less pressure on land 5 , 27 , 41 . Avoiding and reusing waste and by-product streams to close biomass and nutrient cycles are the key principles of circular food systems.…”

Vallkonferens 2023

“…Baserat på en vidarebearbetning av data över växtföljder på svenska gårdar från Karlsson et al (2022) beräknades i detta projekt finansierat sv Stiftelsen Lantbruksforskning 1. andelen kontinuerlig vallodling som andelen av vallarealen år 2019 som odlades på skiften där vall odlats oavbrutet (dvs. utan andra grödor, undantaget träda, i växtföljden) minst fem (2015)(2016)(2017)(2018)(2019) eller sju (2013-2019) år 2. integreringen av vall i spannmålsväxtföljder genom att beräkna andelen av spannmålsarealen (exkl.…”

“…För varje gård finns utöver växtföljder information om driftsinriktning och geografiskt läge. För ytterligare detaljer om dataunderlaget och definitioner av gårdstyperna se Karlsson et al (2022) och Karlsson (2022).…”

Environmental consequences of pig production scenarios using biomass from rotational grass-clover leys as feed

“…These include: feed-food competition (van Zanten et al, 2016), as the diet of monogastric animals is dominated by feedstuffs that are suitable for direct human consumption (Mottet et al, 2017); a risk of point-source pollution from manure (Pexas et al, 2020); and animal welfare challenges, including animals often being reared in barren environments with little stimuli (Brunberg et al, 2016). In addition, as the diets in current monogastric production systems are commonly exclusively based on annual crops, cropping systems on pig, poultry, and arable farms providing feedstuffs for monogastric animals are often monocultures (Karlsson et al, 2022), relying on considerable amounts of fertilizers and pesticides and leading to soil carbon losses (Tripathi et al, 2020).…”