Mitigation strategy synergies in Irish dairy production: a 6-year empirical life cycle assessment

Unofficial AI-generated summary based on the public title and abstract. Not an official translation.

🔬研究者:Demonstrates a multi-year LCA approach to assess cumulative mitigation effects and the gap between intensity and absolute reductions.

🏢実務担当者:Shows that even below-average carbon footprint farms face challenges in achieving absolute emission cuts required by national targets.

🏛政策担当者:Highlights the need for policies that go beyond efficiency gains, e.g., supporting systemic mitigation like methane inhibitors, to meet NDC commitments.

This single-farm longitudinal case study evaluates the environmental impacts of an integrated suite of climate mitigation strategies implemented on Shinagh Farm, a commercial pasture-based dairy operation in southwest Ireland, using primary farm data collected over six consecutive years (2018–2023). Using an attributional life cycle assessment (ALCA) approach, we assessed the effectiveness of strategies such as optimized feed management, the use of protected urea, and enhanced grassland management in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and other environmental impacts. Our findings indicate that implementing these strategies cumulatively reduced the carbon footprint of milk production, with emissions dropping from 0.86 kg CO 2 -eq per kg of fat- and protein-corrected milk (FPCM) in 2018 to 0.63 kg CO 2 -eq per kg FPCM in 2023. Additionally, farm-level NH 3 emissions fell from 4,428 to 2,315 kg NH 3 year −1 (−47.7%), equivalent to a drop from 2.9 to 1.3 g NH 3 per kg FPCM, demonstrating the effectiveness of improved fertilizer and manure management practices. Three nested GHG metrics were tracked. Total farm absolute emissions fell from 1,308 to 1,109 t CO 2 -eq/year (−15.2%). Full-LCA emissions allocated to milk fell from 1,117 to 956 t CO 2 -eq/year (−14.4%). Emissions within the National Inventory Report (NIR) scope allocated to milk, the portion counted toward Ireland's Climate Action Plan target, fell from 843 to 832 t CO 2 -eq/year (−1.3%). This gap between LCA-intensity gains and NIR-relevant absolute reductions is central to the study's policy implications. Because Shinagh's 2018 baseline (0.86 kg CO 2 -eq/kg FPCM) is already below both the Irish (~1.04) and EU (~1.4) averages, the observed diminishing returns are likely to be shared by other well-managed temperate pasture-based dairy systems. The findings point to the need for systemic mitigation such as CH 4 inhibitors, herd-level breeding, and dietary restructuring, to complement efficiency gains and deliver meaningful reductions against national inventory targets.

• semanticscholar https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sustainable-food-systems/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2026.1768097/pdffirst seen 2026-07-24 07:04:27