A review of whole farm systems models of greenhouse gas emissions from beef and dairy cattle production systems
Abstract
To comply with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reporting requirements, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) developed guidelines for calculating national GHG inventories in a consistent and standard framework. Although appropriate for national level accounting purposes, IPCC methodologies lack the farm level resolution and holistic approach required for whole farm systems analysis. Thus, whole farm systems modelling is widely used for farm level analysis. A review of 31 published whole farm modelling studies of GHG emissions from beef and dairy cattle production systems indicated a number of important outcomes. For example, improvements in animal productivity (i.e., liveweight gain milk production) and fertility (i.e., lower culling, lower replacement rates) can reduce GHG emissions/kg product. Additionally, intensification of production as output/ha can reduce emissions/kg product provided input requirements of feed and/or fertilizer are not excessive. Carbon sequestration into agricultural soils has the potential to offset emissions from pastoral based production systems. A product based metric is widely used and allows a wide range of objectives, including farm profitability and food security to be met. Variation in farm system parameters, and the inherent uncertainties associated with emission factors, can have substantial implications for reported agricultural emissions and thus, uncertainty or sensitivity analysis in any modelling approach is needed. Although there is considerable variation among studies in relation to quality of farm data, boundaries assumed, emission factors applied and co-product allocation approach, we suggest that whole farm systems models are an appropriate tool to develop and measure GHG mitigation strategies for livestock farms. This article is part of the special issue entitled: Greenhouse Gases in Animal Agriculture – Finding a Balance between Food and Emissions, Guest Edited by T.A. McAllister, Section Guest Editors; K.A. Beauchemin, X. Hao, S. McGinn and Editor for Animal Feed Science and Technology, P.H. Robinson.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Previous beef life cycle assessment studies modeled grass-fed or grass-finished systems using simplified grazing parameters typically representative of continuous grazing and assumed steady-state soil carbon.
“These studies evaluated only one grazing management system continuous grazingand assumed steady-state soil carbon (C), to model the grass-finishing environmental impact.”
From Impacts of soil carbon sequestration on life cycle greenhouse gas emissions in Midwestern USA beef finishing systems (2018) · cites this paper as Crosson et al., 2011
GHG emitted per unit of milk produced reflects milk GHG emission efficiency and is used as an indicator of farm environmental efficiency.
“GHG emitted per unit of milk produced reflects milk GHG emission efficiency and is used as an indicator of farm environmental efficiency (Crosson et al., 2011).”
From Extension and management pathways for enhanced farm sustainability: evidence from Irish dairy farms (2023) · cites this paper as Crosson et al., 2011
Cites
2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories
Paustian, K. H., Ravindranath, N. H., & van Amstel, A. R. (2006) · Socio-Environmental Systems Modeling · Cited by 6,706 · see citing works
Rebitzer, G., Ekvall, T., Frischknecht, R., Hunkeler, D., Norris, G., Rydberg, T., Schmidt, W.-P., Suh, S., Weidema, B. P., & Pennington, D. W. (2004) · Environment International · doi:10.1016/j.envint.2003.11.005 · Cited by 2,753 · see citing works
Framework convention on climate change
Venanzi, M. (1992) · Cited by 2,585 · see citing works
West, T. O., & Marland, G. (2002) · Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment · doi:10.1016/s0167-8809(01)00233-x · Cited by 1,523 · see citing works
GRASSLAND MANAGEMENT AND CONVERSION INTO GRASSLAND: EFFECTS ON SOIL CARBON
Conant, R. T., Paustian, K., & Elliott, E. T. (2001) · Ecological Applications · doi:10.1890/1051-0761(2001)011[0343:gmacig]2.0.co;2 · Cited by 1,365 · see citing works
Greenhouse gas mitigation by agricultural intensification
Burney, J. A., Davis, S. J., & Lobell, D. B. (2010) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.0914216107 · Cited by 1,128 · see citing works
Amon, B., Kryvoruchko, V., Amon, T., & Zechmeister‐Boltenstern, S. (2005) · Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment · doi:10.1016/j.agee.2005.08.030 · Cited by 683 · see citing works
Life cycle assessment of milk production — a comparison of conventional and organic farming
Cederberg, C., & Mattsson, B. (2000) · Journal of Cleaner Production · doi:10.1016/s0959-6526(99)00311-x · Cited by 585 · see citing works
Carbon cycling and sequestration opportunities in temperate grasslands
Soussana, J.-F., Soussana, J.-F., Loiseau, P., Vuichard, N., Ceschia, E., Balesdent, J., Chevallier, T., & Arrouays, D. (2004) · Soil Use and Management · doi:10.1079/sum2003234 · Cited by 563 · see citing works
Haas, G., Wetterich, F., & Köpke, U. (2001) · Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment · doi:10.1016/s0167-8809(00)00160-2 · Cited by 500 · see citing works
Life cycle assessment of conventional and organic milk production in the Netherlands
Thomassen, M. A., van Calker, K. J., Smits, M. C. J., Iepema, G. L., & de Boer, I. J. M. (2007) · Agricultural Systems · doi:10.1016/j.agsy.2007.06.001 · Cited by 438 · see citing works
Pelletier, N., Pirog, R., & Rasmussen, R. (2010) · Agricultural Systems · doi:10.1016/j.agsy.2010.03.009 · Cited by 419 · see citing works
Beauchemin, K. A., Henry Janzen, H., Little, S. M., McAllister, T. A., & McGinn, S. M. (2010) · Agricultural Systems · doi:10.1016/j.agsy.2010.03.008 · Cited by 397 · see citing works
Gaßmann, B. (1979) · Food / Nahrung · doi:10.1002/food.19790230628 · Cited by 373 · see citing works
Attributional and consequential LCA of milk production
Thomassen, M. A., Dalgaard, R., Heijungs, R., & de Boer, I. J. M. (2008) · The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment · doi:10.1007/s11367-008-0007-y · Cited by 366 · see citing works
Some perspectives on carbon sequestration in agriculture
Hutchinson, J. J., Campbell, C. A., & Desjardins, R. L. (2006) · Agricultural and Forest Meteorology · doi:10.1016/j.agrformet.2006.03.030 · Cited by 347 · see citing works
System expansion and allocation in life cycle assessment of milk and beef production
Cederberg, C., & Stadig, M. (2003) · The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment · doi:10.1007/bf02978508 · Cited by 338 · see citing works
The carbon footprint of dairy production systems through partial life cycle assessment
Rotz, C. A., Montes, F., & Chianese, D. S. (2010) · Journal of Dairy Science · doi:10.3168/jds.2009-2162 · Cited by 336 · see citing works
Environmental consequences of different beef production systems in the EU
Nguyen, T. L. T., Hermansen, J. E., & Mogensen, L. (2010) · Journal of Cleaner Production · doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2009.12.023 · Cited by 298 · see citing works
Eco-efficiency of intensification scenarios for milk production in New Zealand
Basset-Mens, C., Ledgard, S. F., & Boyes, M. K. (2008) · Ecological Economics · doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2007.11.017 · Cited by 296 · see citing works
Modelling greenhouse gas emissions from European conventional and organic dairy farms
Olesen, J. E., Schelde, K., Weiske, A., Weisbjerg, M. R., Asman, W. A. H., & Djurhuus, J. (2005) · Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment · doi:10.1016/j.agee.2005.08.022 · Cited by 254 · see citing works
Red Meat Production in Australia: Life Cycle Assessment and Comparison with Overseas Studies
Peters, G. M., Rowley, H. V., Wiedemann, S. G., Tucker, R. W., Short, M. D., & Schulz, M. (2010) · Environmental Science & Technology · doi:10.1021/es901131e · Cited by 232 · see citing works
Analysis of greenhouse gas emissions from the average Irish milk production system
Casey, J. W., & Holden, N. M. (2004) · Agricultural Systems · doi:10.1016/j.agsy.2004.09.006 · Cited by 232 · see citing works
Description and Validation of the Moorepark Dairy System Model
Shalloo, L., Dillon, P., Rath, M., & Wallace, M. (2004) · Journal of Dairy Science · doi:10.3168/jds.s0022-0302(04)73353-6 · Cited by 207 · see citing works
Self-citationMitigation of greenhouse gas emissions in European conventional and organic dairy farming
Weiske, A., Vabitsch, A., Olesen, J. E., et al. (2005) · Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment · doi:10.1016/j.agee.2005.08.023 · Cited by 202 · see citing works
Brazilian greenhouse gas emissions: the importance of agriculture and livestock
Cerri, C. C., Maia, S. M. F., Galdos, M. V., et al. (2009) · Scientia Agricola · doi:10.1590/s0103-90162009000600017 · Cited by 196 · see citing works
Quantification of GHG emissions from sucker-beef production in Ireland
Casey, J. W., & Holden, N. M. (2006) · Agricultural Systems · doi:10.1016/j.agsy.2005.11.008 · Cited by 171 · see citing works
Schils, R. L. M., Olesen, J. E., del Prado, A., & Soussana, J. (2007) · Livestock Science · doi:10.1016/j.livsci.2007.09.005 · Cited by 164 · see citing works
Greenhouse gas emissions from simulated beef and dairy livestock systems in the United States
Phetteplace, H. W., Johnson, D. E., & SEIDL, A. F. (2001) · Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems · doi:10.1023/a:1012657230589 · Cited by 153 · see citing works
Greenhouse gas emissions from the Canadian beef industry
Verge, X. P. C., Dyer, J. A., Desjardins, R. L., & Worth, D. E. (2008) · Agricultural Systems · doi:10.1016/j.agsy.2008.05.003 · Cited by 153 · see citing works
Beukes, P. C., Gregorini, P., Romera, A. J. J., Levy, G., & Waghorn, G. C. (2009) · Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment · doi:10.1016/j.agee.2009.08.008 · Cited by 153 · see citing works
Casey, J. W., & Holden, N. M. (2006) · Journal of Environmental Quality · doi:10.2134/jeq2005.0121 · Cited by 144 · see citing works
Schils, R. L. M., Verhagen, A., Aarts, H. F. M., & Šebek, L. B. J. (2005) · Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems · doi:10.1007/s10705-004-2212-9 · Cited by 137 · see citing works
Lovett, D. K., Shalloo, L., Dillon, P., & O’Mara, F. P. (2005) · Agricultural Systems · doi:10.1016/j.agsy.2005.03.006 · Cited by 133 · see citing works
Self-citationGlobal environmental costs of beef production
Subak, S. (1999) · Ecological Economics · doi:10.1016/s0921-8009(98)00100-1 · Cited by 121 · see citing works
Veysset, P., Lherm, M., & Bébin, D. (2009) · Agricultural Systems · doi:10.1016/j.agsy.2009.08.005 · Cited by 117 · see citing works
Net ecosystem exchange of grassland in contrasting wet and dry years
Jaksic, V., Kiely, G., Albertson, J. D., Ram Oren, G., Katul, G. G., Leahy, P. G., & Byrne, K. A. (2006) · Agricultural and Forest Meteorology · doi:10.1016/j.agrformet.2006.07.009 · Cited by 117 · see citing works
Avoiding Allocation in Life Cycle Assessment Revisited
Weidema, B. P., & Schmidt, J. H. (2010) · Journal of Industrial Ecology · doi:10.1111/j.1530-9290.2010.00236.x · Cited by 116 · see citing works
Ogino, A., Kaku, K., Osada, T., & Shimada, K. (2004) · Journal of Animal Science · doi:10.2527/2004.8272115x · Cited by 105 · see citing works
The Relationship between Greenhouse Gas Emissions and the Intensity of Milk Production in Ireland
Casey, J. W., & Holden, N. M. (2005) · Journal of Environmental Quality · doi:10.2134/jeq2005.0429 · Cited by 101 · see citing works
Basset-Mens, C., Kelliher, F. M., Ledgard, S. F., & Cox, N. R. (2009) · The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment · doi:10.1007/s11367-009-0108-2 · Cited by 96 · see citing works
O’Brien, D., Shalloo, L., Grainger, C. I., Buckley, F., Horan, B., & Wallace, M. (2010) · Journal of Dairy Science · doi:10.3168/jds.2009-2790 · Cited by 94 · see citing works
Self-citationOgle, S. M., Conant, R. T., & Paustian, K. H. (2004) · Environmental Management · doi:10.1007/s00267-003-9105-6 · Cited by 85 · see citing works
CO2 fluxes in adjacent new and permanent temperate grasslands
Byrne, K. A., Kiely, G., & Leahy, P. G. (2005) · Agricultural and Forest Meteorology · doi:10.1016/j.agrformet.2005.10.005 · Cited by 84 · see citing works
The development of a mathematical model to investigate Irish beef production systems
Crosson, P., O’Kiely, P., O’Mara, F. P., et al. (2005) · Agricultural Systems · doi:10.1016/j.agsy.2005.09.008 · Cited by 82 · see citing works
Self-citationModelling uncertainty in greenhouse gas emissions from UK agriculture at the farm level
Gibbons, J., Ramsden, S. J., & Blake, A. (2005) · Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment · doi:10.1016/j.agee.2005.08.029 · Cited by 79 · see citing works
Schils, R. L. M., Verhagen, A., Aarts, H. F. M., et al. (2006) · Global Change Biology · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2486.2005.01090.x · Cited by 76 · see citing works
Whole-Farm Greenhouse Gas Emissions: A Review with Application to a Pennsylvania Dairy Farm
Chianese, D. S., Rotz, C. A., & Richard, T. L. (2009) · Applied Engineering in Agriculture · doi:10.13031/2013.26895 · Cited by 74 · see citing works
Schils, R. L. M., Verhagen, A., Aarts, H. F. M., et al. (2008) · Global Change Biology · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2486.2007.01537.x · Cited by 74 · see citing works
Assisting whole-farm decision-making through stochastic budgeting
Lien, G. (2003) · Agricultural Systems · doi:10.1016/s0308-521x(02)00079-3 · Cited by 62 · see citing works
Intensification of New Zealand beef farming systems
White, T. A., Snow, V. O., & King, W. M. (2009) · Agricultural Systems · doi:10.1016/j.agsy.2009.08.003 · Cited by 58 · see citing works
Lovett, D. K., Shalloo, L., Dillon, P., et al. (2008) · Livestock Science · doi:10.1016/j.livsci.2007.10.016 · Cited by 55 · see citing works
Self-citationSTEWART, A. A., LITTLE, S. M., OMINSKI, K. H., WITTENBERG, K. M., & JANZEN, H. H. (2009) · The Journal of Agricultural Science · doi:10.1017/s0021859609008764 · Cited by 42 · see citing works
Gottschalk, P., Wattenbach, M., Neftel, A., Fuhrer, J., Jones, M. B., Lanigan, G. J., Davis, P., Campbell, C., Soussana, J., & Smith, P. (2007) · Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment · doi:10.1016/j.agee.2006.12.026 · Cited by 38 · see citing works
Self-citationOlynk, N. J., & Wolf, C. A. (2009) · Journal of Dairy Science · doi:10.3168/jds.2008-1418 · Cited by 27 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Stanley, P. L., Rowntree, J. E., Beede, D. K., DeLonge, M. S., & Hamm, M. W. (2018) · Agricultural Systems · doi:10.1016/j.agsy.2018.02.003 · Cited by 266 · see citing works
“T representative of continuous grazing, a simplistic management strategy in which cattle graze the same pasture continuously through an entire grazing season (Crosson et al., 2011; de Vries et al., 2015).”
BackgroundImpact of the intensification of beef production in Brazil on greenhouse gas emissions and land use
Cardoso, A. S., Berndt, A., Leytem, A., Alves, B. J. R., de Carvalho, I. D. N. O., de Barros Soares, L. H., Urquiaga, S., & Boddey, R. M. (2016) · Agricultural Systems · doi:10.1016/j.agsy.2015.12.007 · Cited by 227 · see citing works
Zhang, H., Hortal, M., Dobon, A., Bermudez, J. M., & Lara‐Lledo, M. (2015) · Packaging Technology and Science · doi:10.1002/pts.2135 · Cited by 80 · see citing works
Berton, M., Agabriel, J., Gallo, L., Lherm, M., Ramanzin, M., & Sturaro, E. (2017) · Agricultural Systems · doi:10.1016/j.agsy.2017.04.005 · Cited by 45 · see citing works
Sustainability of US organic beef and dairy production systems: Soil, plant and cattle interactions
Hafla, A., MacAdam, J., & Soder, K. (2013) · Sustainability · doi:10.3390/su5073009 · Cited by 38 · see citing works
Extension and management pathways for enhanced farm sustainability: evidence from Irish dairy farms
Balaine, L., Läpple, D., Dillon, E. J., & Buckley, C. (2023) · European Review of Agricultural Economics · doi:10.1093/erae/jbac033 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
- Authors
- Crosson, P., Shalloo, L., O’Brien, D., Lanigan, G. J., Foley, P. A., Boland, T. M., & Kenny, D. A.
- Affiliations
- Teagasc - The Irish Agriculture and Food Development Authority (IE)
- University College Dublin (IE)
- Corresponding author
- Crosson, P.
- Venue
- Animal Feed Science and Technology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2011-06
- Volume
- 166-167
- Pages
- 29-45
- ISSN
- 0377-8401 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2049285488
- Cited by
- 312
- References
- 55
- Citations by year
- 2026: 17 · 2025: 19 · 2024: 22 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 20 · 2020: 19 · 2019: 19 · 2018: 21 · 2017: 26 · 2016: 27 · 2015: 16 · 2014: 28 · 2013: 29 · 2012: 12
- FWCI
- 17.71
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Animal Feed Science and Technology (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Chemistry › Sustainable Agricultural Systems Analysis
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Agriculture Sustainability and Environmental Impact
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Agronomy and Crop Science › Ruminant Nutrition and Digestive Physiology
- Keywords
- greenhouse gas emissions, beef cattle production, dairy farming, livestock emissions, emission factors, carbon sequestration, animal productivity, production intensification, emission mitigation strategies, IPCC guidelines, uncertainty analysis, co-product allocation
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
