Life Cycle Assessments and ecosystem services of dairy production - Research project for Salzburg Milch GmbH

The concern of the client Salzburg Milch GmbH regarding a life cycle assessment of its main milk varieties and an evaluation of the ecosystem services of the supplying dairy farms was discussed jointly in advance in several meetings. The aim of the present project was to implement this concern in a scientifically sound manner. The project, which is of particular interest to the contractor in terms of research questions on ecosystem services and their implementation in life cycle assessments, is embedded in a dissertation project. In addition to the calculation of environmental impacts with regard to impact categories such as greenhouse gas emission potential or acidification potential for the (raw) milk types of Salzburg Milch and for its participating farms, and in addition to the identification of optimisation measures in the area of raw milk production, environmental impacts in the dairy up to the trade will also be estimated. For raw milk production, international reference milk production systems (Germany, Denmark) are investigated and their environmental impacts are modelled. The project focuses on the identification of suitable methods for operational and milk variety-specific advantages in ecosystem services. Such ecosystem services are, besides the provision of the main product and by-products (milk, beef, calves or farm manure), mainly in the area of regulating functions (soil and water protection, carbon storage, provision of clean drinking water, pollination, biological pest control, nitrogen fixation, etc.) and in cultural services (landscape aesthetics and recreational value in nature, etc.). To validate the developed and applied methods and their results, a scientific publication in an international (English-language) journal with external evaluation ("peer review") will be prepared.