Economic, Environmental, and Animal Welfare Performance on Livestock Farms: Conceptual Model and Application to Some Case Studies in Italy

Galioto, Francesco; Paffarini, Chiara; Chiorri, Massimo; Torquati, Biancamaria; Cecchini, Lucio

doi:10.3390/su9091615

Cited by 17 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 50 publications

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“…In that study, a comparison between the different dairy farms showed that a high efficiency of food conversion by animals was more effective in terms of environmental impact and, above all, in the production of greenhouse gases and the use of non-renewable energy. Therefore, aspects such as animal welfare, for example in extensive livestock management (more space available, access to pasture, quantity and quality of fresh forage, air quality) (67,68), could indirectly affect the environmental impact by operating on animal efficiency. At the same time, fresh forage may lead to a greater food conversion index and food efficiency (69), providing a positive impact on greenhouse gas emissions and on the environmental influence of livestock farming (70).…”

Section: Environmental Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainability of Four Dairy Farming Scenarios in an Alpine Environment: The Case Study of Toma di Lanzo Cheese

et al. 2020

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The dairy sector accounts for a large share of all European agricultural production, at the same time however, it is one of the most ascribed sector contributors to the environmental impact of agriculture, particularly for greenhouse gas emissions. Simultaneously, it is a strategic sector for the economy but generates increasing debate in the community regarding the social aspects mainly related to the use of resources and the food-feed competition of livestock involving the reduction of human-edible crops. In this general framework, this study aims to compare four different dairy farming scenarios characterized by different use of environmental resources in the Alpine area, considering as a case study the production of the Toma di Lanzo cheese (a traditional cheese produced in the mountainous regions of Piedmont-Northwest Italy). The study envisaged the integrated use of three methodologies: Life Cycle Assessment, Life Cycle Costing and the assessment of human-edible feed conversion efficiency to jointly analyze environmental, economic and social aspects. The main results of this research highlighted how the utilization of local breeds, which maximize the efficiency in the use of territory resources, such as grasslands in a mountain environment, allowed dairy production to reduce emissions, when compared to the high-input traditional breeding systems. Although the mountain livestock systems have several critical issues mainly linked to social factors such as low generational turnover, work schedules, modest life quality of families, it is however possible to earn more income than in lowland scenarios. At the same time, this production system allows the Toma di Lanzo cheese-making heritage to be preserved. This mountain pasture cheese, to which superior organoleptic and nutritional characteristics are attributable, when compared to cheeses from the valley floor, incorporates traditional values, a link to the territory and the transmission of knowledge. With reference to food-feed competition in livestock involving the reduction of the use of human-edible crops and feedstuffs in animal diets, we found that grazing and grass-based feeding systems were one of the most sustainable ways to produce milk.

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Section: Environmental Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainability of Four Dairy Farming Scenarios in an Alpine Environment: The Case Study of Toma di Lanzo Cheese

et al. 2020

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“…Welfare is a central inextricable component of sustainability in livestock systems. Not only is it of moral and ethical importance, but it is also intertwined with animal health, productivity, economics, and environmental impacts ( 1 – 3 ). Consequently, animal welfare can both complement and conflict with other aspects of sustainability ( 4 , 5 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

V-QBA vs. QBA—How Do Video and Live Analysis Compare for Qualitative Behaviour Assessment?

et al. 2022

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Animal welfare is an inextricable part of livestock production and sustainability. Assessing welfare, beyond physical indicators of health, is challenging and often relies on qualitative techniques. Behaviour is a key component of welfare to consider and Qualitative Behaviour Assessment (QBA) aims to achieve this by systematically scoring behaviour across specific terms. In recent years, numerous studies have conducted QBA by using video footage, however, the method was not originally developed using video and video QBA (V-QBA) requires validation. Forty live QBAs were conducted, by two assessors, on housed beef cattle to help fill this validation gap. Video was recorded over the assessment period and a second video assessment was conducted. Live and video scores for each term were compared for both correlation and significant difference. Principle component analysis (PCA) was then conducted and correlations and differences between QBA and V-QBA for the first two components were calculated. Of the 20 terms, three were removed due to an overwhelming majority of scores of zero. Of the remaining 17 terms, 12 correlated significantly, and a significant pairwise difference was found for one (“Bored”). QBA and V-QBA results correlated across both PC1 (defined as “arousal”) and PC2 (defined as “mood”). Whilst there was no significant difference between the techniques for PC1, there was for PC2, with V-QBA generally yielding lower scores than QBA. Furthermore, based on PC1 and PC2, corresponding QBA and V-QBA scores were significantly closer than would be expected at random. Results found broad agreement between QBA and V-QBA at both univariate and multivariate levels. However, the lack of absolute agreement and muted V-QBA results for PC2 mean that caution should be taken when implementing V-QBA and that it should ideally be treated independently from live QBA until further evidence is published. Future research should focus on a greater variety of animals, environments, and assessors to address further validation of the method.

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“…In Italy on a national level, the study of INEA (Trisorio 2008) analyzes the sustainability of Italian agriculture on three dimensions (economic, ecological, and social) identifying for each a set of indicators that are measured in six geographical areas: Northeast, north, west, central, south, islands. More recently, in central Italy a methodology was developed to assess the sustainability of Dairy farming with respect to animal welfare, greenhouse gas emissions and profitability (Galioto et al 2017). The different aspects of sustainability addressed in this study were then interconnected to assess the cost faced by local farmers to improve animal welfare and to reduce Greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An integrated sustainability score based on agro-ecological and socioeconomic indicators. A case study of stockless organic farming in Italy

Migliorini

Galioto

Chiorri

et al. 2018

Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems

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The purpose of our research is to develop an integrated sustainability score (ISS) choosing the farm level as system's boundaries and developing a methodology, based on a geometric mean algorithm, which is negatively affected by the internal imbalance of the agroecosystem. The first step is to identify and calculate the indicators of systems and sub-systems to assess the agro-ecological and socioeconomic dimensions of sustainability. The second step is the selection, weighting and integration of indicators that permit the calculation of the ISS ranging from 0 to 1. The farm sustainability score is categorized into three levels: weak, intermediate and strong. This methodology has been verified on a stockless organic farming system case study of 12 farms in Italy. Results show that most of the farms reached intermediate levels of sustainability but there are significant differences on ISS scores within the study group. Agro-ecological and socioeconomic dimension play a different role in highlighting the coexistence of different models of sustainability. A further development of the present methodology should include an in-depth analysis of the social dimension of sustainability and integrate an assessment procedure to formulate improved management practices that will help farmers to find win-win solutions that decrease the contrast between environmental and economic sustainability.

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Economic, Environmental, and Animal Welfare Performance on Livestock Farms: Conceptual Model and Application to Some Case Studies in Italy

Cited by 17 publications

References 50 publications

Sustainability of Four Dairy Farming Scenarios in an Alpine Environment: The Case Study of Toma di Lanzo Cheese

Sustainability of Four Dairy Farming Scenarios in an Alpine Environment: The Case Study of Toma di Lanzo Cheese

V-QBA vs. QBA—How Do Video and Live Analysis Compare for Qualitative Behaviour Assessment?

An integrated sustainability score based on agro-ecological and socioeconomic indicators. A case study of stockless organic farming in Italy

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