How does soil carbon sequestration affect greenhouse gas emissions from a sheep farming system? Results of a life cycle assessment case study

Abstract

A life cycle assessment (LCA) study of a transition from semi-intensive to semi-extensive Mediterranean dairy sheep farm suggests that the latter has a strong potential for offsetting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through the soil C sequestration (Cseq) in permanent grasslands. The extensification process shows clear environmental advantage when emission intensity is referred to the area-based functional unit (FU). Several LCA studies reported that extensive livestock systems have greater GHG emissions per mass of product than intensive one, due to their lower productivity. However, these studies did not account for soil Cseq of temporary and permanent grasslands, that have a strong potential to partly mitigate the GHG balance of ruminant production systems. Our LCA study was carried out considering the transition from a semi-intensive (SI) towards a semi-extensive (SE) production system, adopted in a dairy sheep farm located in North-Western Sardinia (Italy). Impact scope included enteric methane emissions, feed production, on-farm energy use and transportation, infrastructures as well as the potential C sink arising from soil Cseq with respect to the emission intensity. In order to provide a more comprehensive analysis, we used the following FUs: 1 kg of fat and protein corrected milk (FPCM) and 1 ha of utilised agricultural area (UAA). We observed that the extensification of production system determined contrasting environmental effects when using different FUs accounting for soil Cseq. When soil Cseq in emission intensity estimate was included, we Ac ce pt ed p ap er