A comparison between two specialized dairy cattle farms in the upper Po Valley. Precision agriculture as a strategy to improve sustainability

Abstract

The current tools that allow the application of precision agriculture in livestock systems are undergoing growing diffusion. Given the significant share of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions attributable to the livestock sector, this study investigates the potential contribution of precision agriculture technologies to animal farming sustainability, particularly when considering alternative energy sources.

The research compared two intensive dairy farms in the upper Po Valley (conventional farm - CF - and precision agriculture farm - PAF) using the life cycle assessment approach, considering as declared unit 1 kg of fat protein corrected milk, and aiming to (i) assess the main environmental impact categories for precision and conventional farming; (ii) compare different allocation modes (reference, mass, economic). In the reference mode all the burdens and all the environmental impacts of the farming system are allocated to the main product, which is the milk. The chosen impact categories were: global warming potential, acidification and eutrophication potentials, non-renewable energy, agricultural land occupation and fossil depletion.

Based on the results, in the case of reference allocation, PAF impacts are lower than those from CF for all the impact categories except for global warming potential. When considering mass and economic allocations, the impacts of PAF and CF show the same behaviour for the various impact categories; however, the calculated equivalents place PAF at an increased sustainability level than CF.

Therefore, precision agriculture technologies in animal farming are viable cues for the sustainability of the zootechnical sector and are worth being deepened in future studies focusing on the outcomes of zootechnical automation.