Process information
| Key Data Set Information | |
| Location | QD-SD-CN |
| Geographical representativeness description | A questionnaire survey was conducted on dairy farms in Qingdao, Shandong Province from July to August 2020. |
| Reference year | 2016 |
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| Use advice for data set | When utilizing this dataset for Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), it is important to ensure that all inputs such as feed, water, electricity, diesel, and outputs such as milk, male calves, culled cows, and beef cattle are accurately quantified. Emissions should be accounted for, including those from the production of feed (both on-farm and imported), on-farm energy consumption, and direct emissions from the dairy cows. Users should adopt the Functional Unit of 1 tonne of Fat and Protein Corrected Milk (FPCM) for comparing different dairy farming systems or scenarios. It is advised to consider the impact of regional policies such as silage corn planting subsidies on the economic and environmental aspects of dairy farming. |
| Technical purpose of product or process | The Integrated Planting and Breeding System (IPBS) for dairy farming is intended for the production of dairy products such as milk and beef. In this system, maize silage, which is part of the cattle feed, is produced on-farm to achieve self-sufficiency and reduce reliance on external feed sources. The efficient recycling of nutrients through on-farm feed production coupled with dairy farming is intended to serve as a sustainable model for agriculture, enhancing local food systems and potentially reducing the environmental impact of dairy production. |
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| General comment on data set | In IPBS, part of the silage corn feed in the farms came from self-production, and the self-sufficiency rate of silage corn in 3 farms was 100%. In addition to silage rice, the feeding process of the two models is the same. The main inputs of production materials include feed, water, electricity, diesel, etc., and the products include milk, male calves, eliminated cows, beef cattle, etc. (Table 4). Specifically, dairy cattle feed mainly consists of concentrated feed (containing 30% soybean meal, 50% corn kernels, 10% wheat bran and 10% other substances), corn kernels, wheat bran, silage corn, cottonseed, oats, alfalfa and leveus chinensis. Some dairy farms also use wine grains and rapeseed meal, but the overall environmental impact can be ignored. The low amount of other substances in concentrated feed has negligible impact on the overall environment. Greenhouse gas emissions in dairy farming include emissions from the production of imported feed, emissions from farm energy consumption (e.g. on-farm feed processing, barn lighting and ventilation, water heating, milk refrigeration, etc.), intestinal gas emissions from dairy cows and barn gas emissions. |
| Copyright | No |
| Owner of data set | |
| Quantitative reference | |
| Reference flow(s) | |
| Functional Unit | The 1t FPCM corrected for protein and fat content was selected as the evaluation unit |
| Time representativeness | |
| Time representativeness description | From 2016, Shandong began to implement the silage corn planting subsidy policy, is one of the earliest provinces to implement the subsidy policy, the subsidy standard is 20~50 yuan /t. In 2019, Shandong Province silage corn planting area reached 14,100 hm2, accounting for 7.3% of the country. |
| Technological representativeness | |
| Technology description including background system | In the study area, there are mainly two milk production modes :IPBS and non-IPBS. In non-IPBS, the farms only have feeding links and manure treatment links, all the feed is purchased, and the manure pile fertilizer is made into organic fertilizer and sold to fruit and vegetable farmers. In IPBS, the silage corn planting process is increased in the farm, organic fertilizer and liquid fertilizer are mainly applied to the farm field, and the remaining part is sold to fruit farmers and vegetable farmers, etc. The differences between the two models are as follows :1) the sources of silage corn in the farm are different, resulting in different feed transportation distances and feed costs; 2) The use of organic fertilizer and liquid fertilizer is different, and the transportation distance is different. A total of 109 dairy farms were investigated in this study, and 83 valid questionnaires were obtained after excluding non-conforming questionnaires, among which 38 were non-IPBS and 45 were IPBS. |
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Modelling and validation
Administrative information
Inputs and Outputs