Mitigation of Gaseous Emissions from Livestock Systems : A Farm-Level Method to Examine the Financial Implications

Livestock production will face greater economic challenges meeting the demand for Western diets while reducing gaseous emissions (methane, nitrous oxide, ammonia ). Traditional approaches assess the costs of mitigating these emissions using top-down sectoral models. This study created a farm-level method to assess the financial implications of mitigation measures for gaseous emissions from livestock systems. The method was tested on an average of Irish dairy farms, representing the top, middle, and bottom one-third of producers. The study found that over half of the greenhouse gas (GHG) abatement potential was realized with cost-beneficial measures, and most of the ammonia (NH3) abatement potential was also cost-beneficial. Animal and feed-related measures that increased efficiency drove the abatement of GHG emissions. Low emission slurry spreading was important for the bottom and middle one-third of farms, while protected urea and reducing N use accounted for most of the NH3 abatement potential for the top one-third. The study also found that combining measures increased GHG and NH3 mitigation, but their abatement potentials were not additive due to interactions. Therefore, mitigation measures need to be assessed simultaneously to provide a more accurate estimate of their total mitigation potential. Further harmonising climate and air policies would reduce this risk and support policymakers establish emission targets for the livestock sector