Trends in milk yield productivity and emissions from the dairy sector in Latvia
Laen...
Kuupäev
2023
Kättesaadav alates
Ajakirja pealkiri
Ajakirja ISSN
Köite pealkiri
Kirjastaja
Estonian University of Life Sciences
Abstrakt
Dairy cow productivity continuously increased in Latvia in recent years. Despite
decreasing numbers of dairy cow population dairy farms have been identified as an important
source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Dairy sector emissions create the largest share of
enteric fermentation emissions as well as emissions from manure in housing facilities, during
long-term storage and field application within agriculture sector total emissions. The main
objective of this study is to present the results of trend analysis in the productivity of the dairy
sector and corresponding emission in Latvia. Research is focused on analysis of dairy cow
productivity and feeding strategies to quantify the effect of increasing milk yield on GHG
emissions. In the framework of this research, emissions were calculated and evaluated for low
and high productivity dairy cows according to the methodology of ‘2019 Refinement to the 2006
Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories’. During the last decade dairy cow
productivity in Latvia has increased and the average milk yield in standard lactation was 8,320 kg
per year in 2021. It was observed that 60% of the total number of dairy cows met the requirements
of a high-productivity system, while 40% of the dairy cows belonged to low-productivity systems
in Latvia. Research results show that total GHG emissions for high-productivity system can reach
5.3 kt CO2 eq. per 1,000 cows per year, however, for low-productivity system the total amount
of emissions does not exceed 3.1 kt CO2 eq. per 1,000 cows.
Kirjeldus
Received: January 31st, 2023 ; Accepted: May 8th, 2023 ; Published: May 26th, 2023 ; Correspondence: laima.berzina@llu.lv
Märksõnad
climate, dairy, emissions, greenhouse gas, productivity, articles