LCA Food 2012 in Saint Malo, France! - Manifestations et colloques ...

PARALLEL SESSION 3C: SHEEP AND DAIRY PRODUCTION SYSTEMS 8 th Int. Conference on LCA in the
Agri-Food Sector, 1-4 Oct 2012
310
Carbon footprint of sheep farms in France and New Zealand and
methodology analysis
Armelle Gac 1 , Stewart Ledgard 2,* , Elise Lorinquer 1 , Mark Boyes 2 , André Le Gall 1
1 Institut de l'Elevage, Building and Environment Department, BP 85225, F-35652 Le Rheu, France
2 AgResearch, Ruakura Research Station, Hamilton, New Zealand
Corresponding author. E-mail: elise.lorinquer@idele.fr
ABSTRACT
For eco-labelling of products, the environmental performance is an important factor and this can be significant for meat products.
This study deals with the carbon footprint of French and New Zealand lamb production at the cradle-to-farm gate. In France, the
analysis was performed on two contrasting systems: “in-shed lamb” vs “grass lamb”, while in New Zealand, the main “grass” system
was studied. The average carbon footprint of “grass” (19 farms) and “in shed” (85farms) French lamb was 12.7 and 12.9 kg CO2
eq/kg live weight (LW) sold, respectively, and of the main New Zealand system (151 farms) was 8.52 kg CO2 eq/kg LW The results
were highly dependent on methodological choices, especially regarding enteric fermentation assessment and allocation. These results
provide insights into requirements for building an internationally common framework to allow comparison of results.
Keywords: life cycle assessment, lamb, farming systems, methodology
1. Introduction
The environment is becoming increasingly important to consumers and there are economic implications
in the comparison between products based on their environmental performance. For eco-labelling of products,
this issue is particularly important for meat products because of their significant impact on climate
change (Hamershlag, 2011). In this context, environmental assessments of farm systems and agricultural
products are becoming essential at an international scale. This should include identification of methodology
issues to ensure reliable and equitable comparisons. These environmental assessments will also increase understanding
of the different emissions sources in order to identify options to reduce them.
This study deals with the carbon footprint of French and New Zealand lamb production. These two countries
are both major lamb producers and are reacting positively to environmental concerns about their production.
New Zealand is the third largest sheep meat producer in the world (0.6 Mt) and is one of the largest
exporters to Europe (FAO). It has initiated environmental research to respond to the eco-labelling initiatives
in Europe (e.g. Ledgard et al., 2010). France has the fourth largest ovine flock in Europe and the planned
move to environmental labelling of products by the end of 2012 has lead to several recent or ongoing studies
on agricultural products (e.g. Dollé et al., 2011, Van der Werf et al., 2010). This study has been led by two
applied research teams who have already worked on the topic of environmental impacts of lamb production.
The objectives were to analyse the differences between systems and countries and to share knowledge about
methodological issues, through collaboration (Lorinquer, 2011).
2. Methods
2.1. The lamb production systems
The analysis was performed in the two countries for the year 2008, on a sample of farms. In France, sheep
meat comes from a large diversity of farming systems, all with a significant part of the year where sheep are
in-doors. A sample of farms representing two contrasting specialised systems was selected: “in-shed lamb”
(85 survey farms with significant use of housing systems) vs “grass lamb” (19 survey farms with significant
use of perennial grasslands) (Table 1). The data comes from the French Breeding Network database led by
Institut de l’Elevage. In New Zealand, the main “grass” system (mixed sheep and beef on North Island hill
country; perennial grasslands) was studied (Table 1). The data comes from 151 farms surveyed by Beef +
Lamb New Zealand.
Most of the technical data were provided by those survey sources (size of the flock, weight, area of the
farm, practices, etc.). Nitrogen excretion and the dry matter intake by the animals was assessed using information
on the forage stocks and feed purchased by farms in France. In New Zealand it was calculated using a
validated energy-requirement model (Clark et al., 2007; from the National Inventory methods) based on
animal productivity data.