Increased and improved use of pastoral land can promote a more sustainable meat production

Illustration of remote sensing made by Eugenio Carlon.

Evaluating local foraging resources in Italy using remote sensing and productivity modelling. In the Italian Alps, the use of mountain pastures and traditional pastoral methods is on the decline. Researchers at the University of Milan are studying traditional alpine pastoralism and investigating circularity in this system.  Machine learning classification techniques combine information from optical and […]

Measures to lower carbon footprint from dairy farms

Picture describing the largest emission sources of 71 European dairy farms. 1: Eneric fermenation. 2. Concentrate feed production. 3. Emissions from manure management.

Researchers have assessed the carbon footprints of dairy farms in 5 European countries. Farm management practices explained up to 79% of the variation in carbon footprints, which implies potential for lowering emissions. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology was used to calculate the environmental impacts of milk production on 71 farms in Ireland, England, Spain, France […]

Sheep spending the entire year on pastures have a lower Carbon Footprint

Transhumant systems can reduce the carbon footprint (CF) from sheep production by almost one third, compared to sedentary farms. Photo: Raquel Casas.

Pasture can reduce carbon footprint from sheep production by almost one third. Transhumant sheep systems, both by foot and lorry, achieve relatively low carbon footprint, compared to sedentary farms. Mobility of grazing livestock can thus be considered as a strategy to promote climate change mitigation.   This is the conclusion in a research paper from […]