Role of Corn Silage in the Sustainability of Dairy Buffalo Systems and New Perspective of Allocation Criterion

Andrea Bragaglio, Aristide Maggiolino, Elio Romano and Pasquale De Palo
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Andrea Bragaglio: Department of Medicine Veterinary, University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, 70010 Valenzano, Italy
Aristide Maggiolino: Department of Medicine Veterinary, University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, 70010 Valenzano, Italy
Elio Romano: Council for Agricultural Research and Economics-Research Centre for Engineering and Agro-Food Processing, CREA-IT, 24047 Treviglio, Italy
Pasquale De Palo: Department of Medicine Veterinary, University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, 70010 Valenzano, Italy

Agriculture, 2022, vol. 12, issue 6, 1-24

Abstract: This paper aims to compare the cradle-to-farm gate sustainability of two dairy buffalo systems, according to life cycle assessment guidelines (LCA). Primary data were obtained by five intensive farms with feeding plans based on non-corn silage (NCS) and five with corn silage (CS) based rations. Both systems were characterized by the presence of two farms with wheat grain yields, sold for human consumption. All the farms were in Southern Italy and seven were included in the Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) area of “Mozzarella di bufala campana”. The functional unit (FU) adopted was 1 kg of normalized buffalo milk (NBM); impact categories investigated were: global warming potential (GWP), acidification potential (AP), eutrophication potential (EP), agricultural land occupation (ALO), water depletion (WD). Two different economic allocation procedures were tested: a first step aimed to mitigate the environmental impacts sharing among wheat grain, where present, and milk. The second stage involved culled buffalo cows. Neither the allocation nor the combination of allocation and feeding system showed significant effects ( p > 0.05). Corn silage-based system (CS) showed lower impacts than non-corn silage (NCS) one for AP and EP ( p = 0.002 and p = 0.051 respectively). High average dry matter yield per hectare of corn silage probably had a positive effect on SO 2 and PO 4 3− equivalents.

Keywords: LCA; sustainability; corn silage; dairy buffaloes; allocation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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