The Macaulay Land Use Research Institute and SCRI joined forces on 1 April 2011 to create The James Hutton Institute. It is the first Institute of its type in Europe and will make major, new contributions to the understanding of key global issues such as food, energy and environmental security.
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The environmental implications of high intensity livestock systems - identifying environmental indicators
C. Willeke-Wetstein
Department of Livestock Ecology, Justus-Liebig University, Ludwigstrasse 21, 35390, Giessen, Germany.
Abstract
High intensity systems are defined as, industrial livestock production systems and intensive mixed crop livestock production systems with stocking rates over 1.5 livestock units per hectare.
The internationally accepted Driving Forces-State-Response Model of the OECD (1996) and the Environmental Risk Assessment used for local projects in Germany are used in the selection of indicators. Both models are presented and discussed in terms of their usefulness for assessing livestock production systems.
The choice of indicators depends upon the purpose for which they are to be used, i.e. whether the indicators are used for monitoring purposes or for the ex ante quantification of impacts. The applicability of several "driving forces" indicators is discussed. For instance, in the case of nitrogen, farm-gate balances are useful as rough ex ante estimates whereas within-farm nutrient cycles and individual animal balances require a much higher data input and may be used as monitoring instruments. Other issues for discussion are:
NH3 emissions
Manure storage and application systems
Fossil energy consumption
Chemical use in feed etc.
Feed and forage production.