Exploring Rotational Grazing and Crossbreeding as Options for Beef Production to Reduce GHG Emissions and Feed-Food Competition through Farm-Level Bio-Economic Modeling.

In the context of a growing population, beef production is expected to reduce its consumption of human-edible food and its contribution to global warming. We hypothesize that implementing the innovations of fast rotational grazing and redesigning existing production systems using crossbreeding and sexing may reduce these impacts. In this research, the bio-economic model FarmDyn is used to assess the impact of such innovations on farm profit, workload, global warming potential, and feed-food competition. The innovations are tested in a Belgian system composed of a Belgian Blue breeder and a fattener farm, another system where calves raised in a French suckler cow farm are fattened in a farm in Italy, and third, a German dairy farm that fattens its male calves. The practice of fast rotational grazing with a herd of dairy-to-beef crossbred males is found to have the best potential for greenhouse gas reduction and a reduction of the use of human-edible food when by-products are available. Crossbreeding with early-maturing beef breeds shows a suitable potential to produce grass-based beef with little feed-food competition if the stocking rate considers the grassland yield potential. The results motivate field trials in order to validate the findings.

Environmental performance and shell formation-related carbon flows for mussel farming systems.

This study examined the environmental performance of mussel (Mytilus galloprovincialis) farming in the view of reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, through the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology. The LCA has been integrated with the evaluation of the carbon sequestration potential of the biocalcification process. Three case studies of mussel farming sited along the coastal area in the north Adriatic Sea, Italy, were analyzed. Two of them concerned mussels that do not require a depuration process (area Class A), and one inspected mussel production in the rearing area of Class B, which imposes a depuration phase after harvesting. This study examined all the relevant flows of materials and energy across the systems and explored the potential role of mussel biocalcification in stocking seawater carbon into the shells. Global Warming (GW) -related emissions amounted to 0.07-0.12 kg CO2 eq for Class_A case studies and to 0.53 kg CO2 eq for Class_B case study. Through biogenic calcification, 0.19-0.20 kg CO2 kg-1 mussel is fixed in the shells, and 0.12 kg CO2 kg-1 mussel is released. These flows resulted in a net sequestration of about 0.08 kg CO2 kg-1 mussel. This study confirmed the good environmental performance of the mussel production in the farming systems analyzed. When considering greenhouse gasses emissions, the extent to which the seawater carbon fixed in the shell as calcium carbonate can be considered a carbon sink was discussed and substantiated by locally collected environmental data.

Corn silage replacement with barley silage in dairy cows' diet does not change milk quality, cheese quality and yield.

BACKGROUND: Considering that water availability for agricultural needs is being restricted, an alternative to corn in animal nutrition should be explored in the Po Valley. The present study aimed to evaluate the effects of either a partial (Trial I) or a total (Trial II) corn silage substitution with barley silage in dairy cows' diet on milk yield and composition, its coagulation properties, cheese yield and the sensorial profile of 16-month-aged Grana Padano cheese. RESULTS: A partial or a total substitution of corn silage with barley silage had no effect on milk yield. Milk fat content in Trial I and milk urea content in both trials were higher with barley silage based diets than in corn silage based diets. No effects were observed concerning the lactodinamographic profile for milk aptitude to cheese-making, cheese yield and its organoleptic traits between feed treatments in Trials I and II. In both trials, hardness, friability and solubility scores were generally lower than reference values, whereas deformability, elasticity and stickiness scores were generally higher than reference values. CONCLUSION: A partial or a total substitution of corn silage with barley silage in diets for dairy cows did not induce any negative effects on animal performance, nor on milk-quality traits, cheese quality and yield. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry.

Plasma estrone sulfate, clinical biochemistry, and milk yield of dairy cows carrying a fetus from a bull or its clone.

The aim of this article was to compare plasma estrone sulfate (E1SO4), clinical biochemistry, and milk yield of dairy cows carrying a female fetus from a bull (BULL) or from its clone (CLONE), evaluating also the relationship between the former variables and the birth weight of the newborn. Sixteen recipient dairy Friesian heifers (10 BULL and 7 CLONE) received a female embryo, obtained by in vitro embryo production and sexing by polymerase chain reaction with the semen of the BULL or the CLONE. Blood samples on all cows were obtained before feed distribution in the morning from jugular vein from 4 weeks before to 4 weeks after calving, to be analyzed for metabolic profile. The samples from late gestation were also analyzed for E1SO4 concentration. To separately assess the effect of calf birth weight (CBW), data were categorized as follows: low (<39 kg; BWT-A), mid (39-46 kg; BWT-B), and high (>46 kg; BWT-C). The plasma concentrations of ß-hydroxybutyric acid (BHB, P=0.019), Na (P=0.002), Cl (P=0.026), strong cation-anion balance (P=0.020), total bilirubin (P=0.054), and α1-globulin (P=0.044) were higher in prepartum BULL recipients than those in CLONE, whereas BHB (P=0.021) and Mg (P=0.090) were higher in postpartum BULL recipients, while no differences were recorded in the remaining postpartum parameters. The CBW class had significant interaction with week of gestation on antepartum plasma estrone sulfate (P=0.021), whereas CBW per se affected antepartum plasma BHB (P=0.021), and nonesterified fatty acids (NEFA; P=0.011) being higher in BWT-C which also had the lower NEFA concentration during postpartum. Milk yield was unaffected by the sire used, both for quantitative and qualitative aspects. Cows carrying heavier fetus (BWT-C) had a different lactation affected by month compared with the other 2 CBW groups. From these results, there were no differences between BULL and CLONE recipients. Estrone sulfate, BHB, and NEFA may be used to predict CBW and provide different nutritional management during gestation.