Publications
NIBIOs employees contribute to several hundred scientific articles and research reports every year. You can browse or search in our collection which contains references and links to these publications as well as other research and dissemination activities. The collection is continously updated with new and historical material.
2020
Abstract
The aim of this work was to calculate farm specific LCAs for milk-production on 200 dairy farms in Central Norway, where 185 farmed conventional and 15 according to organic standards. We assume that there are variations in environmental emission drivers between farms and therefore also variation in indicators. We think that information can be utilized to find management improvements on individual farms. Farm specific data on inputs and production for the calendar years 2014 to 2016 were used. The LCAs were calculated for purchased products and on farm-emissions, including atmospheric deposition, biological nitrogen fixation, use of fertilizer and manure. The enteric methane emission from digestion was calculated for different animal groups. The functional unit was one kg energy- corrected milk (ECM) delivered at farm-gate. For the 200 dairy farms there were huge variations of farm characteristics, environmental per- formance and economic outcome. On average, the organic farms produced milk with a lower carbon footprint (1.2 kg CO2 eq./kg ECM) than the conventional ones (1.4 kg CO2 eq./kg ECM). The organic farms had also a lower energy intensity (3.1 MJ/kg ECM) and nitrogen intensity (5.0 kg N/kg N) than their conventional colleagues (4.1 MJ/kg ECM and 6.9 kg N/kg N respectively). The contribution margin was better on the organic farms with 6.6 NOK/kg ECM compared to the conventional with 5.9 NOK/kg ECM. The average levels of the environmental indicators were comparable but slightly higher than findings in other international studies. The current study proved that the FARMnor model allows to calculate LCAs for large number of individual farms. The results show that the environmental performance and economic outcome vary between farms. We recommend that farm specific LCA-results are used to unveil what needs to be changed for improving a farm’s environmental performance.
Abstract
Farms in Central Norway, feeding more forage and pasture to their dairy cows, achieved lower milk yield per cow but higher profitability than farms feeding more concentrate feeds, mainly because of more governmental subsidies per kg milk and meat produced. Also, our analysis does not support the general assumption that higher concentrate feeding and milk production lowers global warming potential and energy needed per kg of milk and meat produced compared with more extensive systems
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
2019
Abstract
The continuous increase in global population and living standards, is leading to an increase in demand for food and feed resources. The world’s oceans have the largest unlocked potential for meeting such demands. Norway already has an extensive aquaculture industry, but still has great ambitions and possibilities to develop and expand this industry. One of the important topics for improving the value chain of Norwegian aquaculture is to secure the access to feed resources and to improve the environmental impacts. Today, most of the feed-protein sources used in aquaculture are imported in the form of soy protein. The research project Energy efficient PROcessing of MACroalgae in blue-green value chains (PROMAC) aimed, among other research questions, to investigate cultivated seaweeds as a potential raw material for fish feed. This paper assesses Life Cycle Analysis (LCA)-perspectives of scenarios for future seaweed production of feed-protein for fish and compares this with today’s situation of imported soy protein for fish feed. The insights from the LCA are very important for the configuration of the entire production value chain, to ensure that the environmental aspects are taken into account in a holistic fashion.
Authors
Matthias KoeslingAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Celine Rebours Nina Pereira Kvadsheim Matthias Koesling Jon Halfdanarson Bjørn Tore Nystrand Jan Sunde Jan EmblemsvågAbstract
No abstract has been registered
2018
Authors
Jan Emblemsvåg Nina Pereira Kvadsheim Matthias Koesling Jon Halfdanarson Celine Rebours Annik Magerholm FetAbstract
Research is being poured into developing both potential products and the processes required to convert seaweed, or macroalgae, into products. So far, the results are products for high-end markets, such as restaurants, but in very modest volumes. To understand what it will take to create a large-scale seaweed industry, research is conducted into the strategic-, environmental- and economic realities such an industry would have to deal with as suppliers of fish-feed. The idea is that unless the industry has something to offer that competing products do not, in terms of cost, performance or environmental- and economic footprint, the seaweed industry will be delegated to small volumes for special needs and high value products. These topics are discussed below.
Authors
Matthias KoeslingAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
This study examines the relationships between profitability, nitrogen (N) surplus, greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), and energy intensity and factors influencing these relationships in dairy farming. In-depth data from 10 conventional and 8 organic dairy farms in Western Norway were analyzed. Organic farms had lower N surplus per hectare (local, onfarm) and per unit output (global, cradle-to-farm-gate), and lower estimated GHG emissions and energy intensity per unit output, whereas labor input and farm profits did not differ. Higher profitability tended to be associated with improved performance of the environmental indicators examined. Intensification through increased use of concentrates tended to improve profit and reduce N surplus, GHG emissions, and energy intensity per unit output within each farming system while N surplus per hectare could be negatively affected. To ensure a balanced representation of the environmental consequences of both organic and conventional farming systems,our results give support to extensive examination of both area and product-based environmental performance indicators.