Yield gap analysis to identify attainable milk and meat productivities and the potential for greenhouse gas emissions mitigation in cattle systems of Colombia,Agricultural Systems

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Yield gap analysis to identify attainable milk and meat productivities and the potential for greenhouse gas emissions mitigation in cattle systems of Colombia
Agricultural Systems ( IF 6.1 ) Pub Date : 2021-10-30 , DOI: 10.1016/j.agsy.2021.103303
Ricardo González-Quintero ₁ , Mark T. van Wijk ₂ , Alejandro Ruden ₁ , Manuel Gómez ₃ , Heiber Pantevez ₃ , Fabio Castro-Llanos ₁ , An Notenbaert ₁ , Jacobo Arango ₁

Affiliation

CONTEXT

Colombia has a total of 27.2 million heads of cattle, ranking fourth among the Latin American countries. Identifying sustainable strategies to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE) will help the Colombian government meet their goal of a 51% reduction in national emissions by 2030. Estimation of yield gaps for identifying the potential to improve cattle farms productivity and efficiency in Colombia help on reducing the GHGE intensities from the cattle sector.

OBJECTIVE

This paper aims to calculate the gap between attainable and actual milk and meat yields for specialized dairy, dual-purpose, cow-calf, and fattening production systems in 3 agro-ecological zones (AEZ) in Colombia; to identify the main aspects that restrict the meat and milk yields in these production systems; and analyze how closing yield gaps affect the carbon footprint (CF) of meat and milk production.

METHODS

The most suitable AEZs for cattle activities were identified by considering environmental, climatic, edaphic, and land characteristics. From a dataset of 1505 surveyed farms, a yield gap benchmarking analysis for estimating the potential to increase meat and milk yields in each of the identified AEZ was applied. The most productive farms were included in the “best farms” while the rest of the farms belonged to the “farms operating below potential”. A “cradle to farm-gate” Life Cycle Assessment was used to calculate the CF. Three scenarios were proposed for closing the yield gaps by 50, 75, and 100%, between the two groups of farms.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS

Three AEZs likely to support cattle activities in Colombia were identified. Average milk production from the farms operating below potential was 45–50% of potential production, and meat was 34–51%, indicating that a potential to achieve increases in milk and meat productivity exists. CFs of 1 kg milk or meat were lower in the groups of best-performing farms than in the groups of farms operating below potential. Yield gaps for milk and meat production can be closed by improving cattle management practices and better technologies. As a general trend, closing the yield gaps decreases the CFs.

SIGNIFICANCE

Our findings contribute to understand the farms' current productive performance and provides key insights into the possible technological and managerial changes for improving the productivity of cattle systems in Colombia. In addition, the study showed how milk and meat CFs can be lowered with the adoption of proper cattle management practices, and better technologies.

中文翻译：

产量差距分析，以确定哥伦比亚奶牛系统可达到的牛奶和肉类产量以及减缓温室气体排放的潜力

语境

哥伦比亚共有牛2720万头，在拉美国家中排名第四。确定减少温室气体排放 (GHGE) 的可持续战略将有助于哥伦比亚政府实现其到 2030 年将全国排放量减少 51% 的目标。估算产量差距以确定提高哥伦比亚养牛场生产力和效率的潜力有助于减少来自牛业的温室气体强度。

客观的

本文旨在计算哥伦比亚 3 个农业生态区 (AEZ) 的专业乳制品、两用、牛犊和育肥生产系统可实现的与实际牛奶和肉类产量之间的差距；确定限制这些生产系统中肉类和牛奶产量的主要方面；并分析缩小产量差距如何影响肉类和牛奶生产的碳足迹 (CF)。

方法

通过考虑环境、气候、土壤和土地特征，确定了最适合牛活动的 AEZ。从 1505 个受调查农场的数据集中，应用了产量差距基准分析，以估计每个已确定的 AEZ 增加肉类和牛奶产量的潜力。生产力最高的农场被列入“最佳农场”，而其余农场则属于“低于潜力经营的农场”。使用“从摇篮到农场门”生命周期评估来计算 CF。为了将两组农场之间的产量差距缩小 50%、75% 和 100%，提出了三种方案。

结果和结论

确定了可能支持哥伦比亚养牛活动的三个 AEZ。低于潜在产量的农场的平均牛奶产量为潜在产量的 45-50%，肉类为 34-51%，表明存在提高牛奶和肉类生产力的潜力。表现最好的农场组中 1 公斤牛奶或肉类的 CF 低于潜力不足的农场组。通过改进牛管理实践和更好的技术，可以缩小牛奶和肉类生产的产量差距。作为一般趋势，缩小收益率差距会降低 CF。