Activity: Feeding strategies and manure management for cost-effective mitigation of greenhouse gas emission from dairy farms in Wisconsin

The goal of this activity is to summarize the findings of Dutreuil et al., who have collected data relevant to our case-study. The authors Wisconsin dairy farms, categorized them as organic, grazing and conventional and used a simulation software (IFSM, or Integrated Farm Simulation Model) to explore the trade-offs of changes in feeding strategies and/or manure management on farm revenue and greenhouse gases emissions.   

Instructions:

  1. Open the paper of Dutreuil et al. (2015) from the schedule page.  

  2. All together, let's explore the main characteristics of the three types of farms (Table 1) and the type of simulated scenarios (Figure 1).  

  3. Explore Table 3 (conventional farms) to identify the (simulated) trade-offs between Net Return to Management ($) and Net Emission (kg CO2 eq./kgECM). Which of the studies scenarios lead to predicted "win-win", "win-loss", "loss-win" and "loss-loss" situations? Interpret your findings in term of recommendations that we could make for our case study. 

  4. Explore Table 4 (grazing farms) to identify the (simulated) trade-offs between Net Return to Management ($) and Net Emission (kg CO2 eq./kgECM). Which of the studies scenarios lead to predicted "win-win", "win-loss", "loss-win" and "loss-loss" situations? Interpret your findings in term of recommendations that we could make for our case study. 

  5. Explore Table 5 (organic farms) to identify the (simulated) trade-offs between Net Return to Management ($) and Net Emission (kg CO2 eq./kgECM). Which of the studies scenarios lead to predicted "win-win", "win-loss", "loss-win" and "loss-loss" situations? Interpret your findings in term of recommendations that we could make for our case study.

  6. Let's discuss the main conclusions together.







Keywords:
Activity: Feeding strategies and manure management for cost-effective mitigation of greenhouse gas emission from dairy farms in Wisconsin 
Doc ID:
47007
Owned by:
Michel W. in Food Production Systems &
Sustainability
Created:
2015-02-10
Updated:
2015-12-01
Sites:
DS 471 Food Production Systems and Sustainability