Publication Date:
2024-04-14
Description:
Animal production is responsible for 14.5% of total anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Approximately half of these emissions originate directly from animal production, whereas the other half comes from feed production. Animal breeding aims at improving animal production and efficient use of resources, which results in a reduction of environmental impact. In this chapter we quantify the contribution of animal breeding to reducing the environmental impact of the four major livestock species in the Netherlands, namely laying hens, broilers and pigs (all monogastrics), and dairy cattle (ruminants). For eggs, and broiler and pig meat we focussed on GHG emissions and nitrogen and phosphorus efficiency, whereas for dairy we focussed on enteric methane emissions, an important contributor to GHG emissions. Results showed that current selection strategies on increased (feed) efficiency indirectly reduces environmental impact per unit of animal product by about 1% per year. If the aim is to directly select on environmental traits, recording of new traits is required; e.g., nitrogen and phosphorus contents of meat and eggs, and methane emission of individual dairy cows.
Keywords:
Livestock production
;
environmental impact
;
animal breeding
;
life cycle assessment
;
Selection index calculation
;
thema EDItEUR::T Technology, Engineering, Agriculture, Industrial processes::TV Agriculture and farming::TVH Animal husbandry::TVHF Dairy farming
;
thema EDItEUR::R Earth Sciences, Geography, Environment, Planning::RN The environment::RNP Pollution and threats to the environment::RNPG Climate change
;
thema EDItEUR::T Technology, Engineering, Agriculture, Industrial processes::TV Agriculture and farming::TVF Sustainable agriculture
;
thema EDItEUR::T Technology, Engineering, Agriculture, Industrial processes::TV Agriculture and farming::TVH Animal husbandry::TVHF Dairy farming
;
thema EDItEUR::R Earth Sciences, Geography, Environment, Planning::RN The environment::RNP Pollution and threats to the environment::RNPG Climate change
;
thema EDItEUR::T Technology, Engineering, Agriculture, Industrial processes::TV Agriculture and farming::TVF Sustainable agriculture
Language:
English
Format:
image/jpeg
Format:
image/jpeg
Format:
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