Environmental sustainability in dairy farms

Supervisor: Prof. Mirco Corazzin

The concept of sustainability, defined for the first time in the Stockholm Declaration of 1972, has always been applied, in various ways until, between the 90s and 2000s were outlined three different pillars of sustainability: environmental, economic and social. Despite the interest in all the pillars of sustainability, the agri-food sector has always paid attention to environmental sustainability and mitigation measures for climate-changing gases which are mainly linked to animal production and land use. Being the third productive sector in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, the agri-food sector has a fundamental role in achieving the goals defined by the United Nations Organization (UN) for the reduction of climate change. The dairy sector contributes to 4% of all anthropogenic emissions and its main emissions is methane. For this reason, it is essential to assess how methane production vary not only according to the individuality of the animals, but also in relation to herd management and environmental conditions.