In this project, the researchers have quantified various ecosystem services from milk production compared to other operational orientations. One of these important ecosystem services is carbon storage in the topsoil, the development of which on different farm types was evaluated over a ten-year period.
Carbon storage was significantly higher on dairy farms and there was a positive relationship with carbon content in soil and proportion of pasture on the farm. The carbon storage in the topsoil reduced the dairy farms' climate impact by 1.4 tonnes of carbon dioxide per hectare and year. This corresponds to a reduction of approximately 0.22 kg of carbon dioxide per kg of milk when the climate benefit was distributed between the milk and the meat from the dairy cows. In ongoing studies, the researchers are now continuing to investigate different indicators and ways to measure biodiversity and ecosystem services.
Read more on the Swedish version of this page.
Project leader:
Pernilla Tidåker
Pernilla.Tidaker@slu.se
Telephone: 076- 810 53 83
Kajsa Henryson, Katharina H. E. Meurer, Martin A. Bolinder, Thomas Kätterer & Pernilla Tidåker (2022) Higher carbon sequestration on Swedish dairy farms compared with other farm types as revealed by national soil inventories, Carbon Management, 13:1, 266-278.
Newsletter Food for thought
LinkedIn SLU Future Food
Podcast Feeding your mind
YouTube SLU Future Food