1 Introduction
2 Goal and scope definition
3 Inventory
Characteristic | Unit | Value |
---|---|---|
Grassland | ha | 29.9 |
Arable land | ha | 8.6 |
Milking cows | Amount | 63 |
Heifers >1 year | Amount | 25 |
Breeding calves <1 year | Amount | 21 |
Electricity use | kWh | 25,690 |
Diesel use | l | 4780 |
Natural gas use | m3
| 1430 |
Milk production | kg/cow | 7630 |
Fat content | Percent | 4.42 |
Protein content | Percent | 3.49 |
Pesticides | kga/ha | 0.25 |
Concentrates | kg/cow | 2,160 |
Attributional | ||
90 DVEb
| Tonnes | 85 |
120 DVE | Tonnes | 43 |
180 DVE | Tonnes | 7 |
Consequential | ||
Soybean meal | Tonnes DMc
| 71 |
Spring barley | Tonnes DMc
| 64 |
Purchased artificial fertiliser | kg N/farm | 5,750 |
Exported animals | kg N/farm | 650 |
3.1 Attributional life cycle inventory
3.1.1 Mass and economic allocation
Product | Mass allocation (%) | Economic allocation (%) |
---|---|---|
Milk | 96 | 92 |
Beet pulp | 20 | 15 |
Molasses | 10 | 5 |
Maize gluten meal | 2.5 | 8 |
Maize gluten meal Prairy Gold | 2.5 | 10 |
Palm kernel meal | 11 | 3 |
Rape seed meal | 56 | 28 |
Soy hulls | 3 | 1 |
Tapioca | 22 | 27 |
Triticale grain | 60 | 71 |
Wheat grain | 61 | 85 |
Wheat hulls | 17 | 9 |
3.2 Consequential life cycle inventory
3.2.1 System expansion
4 General overview of ALCA and CLCA outcomes
Methodology Handling co-products impact category | Unit/kg FPCM | Attributional mass allocation | Attributional economic allocation | Consequential system expansion |
---|---|---|---|---|
Land usea
| m2
| 1.18 | 1.16 | 0.90 |
Fossil energy useb
| MJ | 5.77 | 6.91 | 2.55 |
Eutrophicationa
| g NO3-eq | 163 | 170 | 113 |
Acidificationa
| g SO2-eq | 10.9 | 11.2 | 4.78 |
Climate changea
| g CO2-eq | 1,560 | 1,610 | 901 |
5 Comparison
ALCA | CLCA | |
---|---|---|
Synonym | Status quo | Change-oriented |
Type of questions answered | Accounting | Assessing consequences of changes |
Data | Average historical | Marginal future |
Knowledge required | Physical mechanisms | Physical and market mechanisms |
Functional unit | Represents static situation | Represents change in volume |
System boundaries | Static processes | Affected processes by change in demand |
System expansion | Optional | Obligatory |
Co-product allocation | Frequently used | Never used |
Hotspot identification | System-dependent | System-dependent |
Comprehensibility | ||
LCA practitioner | Difficult use of arbitrary allocation factors | Difficult inclusion of future processes |
Feeding expert | Good; concentrates represent reality | Difficult to understand usage of two ingredients |
Quality | Sensitive to uncertainties | Higher sensitivity to uncertainties |
Data availability | Similar | Similar |