Comparison of environmental and economic indicators of organic and conventional sheep farms in milk production

Society is concerned about emissions of greenhouse gases and climate change, one of the sectors involved in them is ruminates livestock. Because organic production represents a sustainable alternative for the environment, we studied the greenhouse gas emissions of six farms, two intensive farms, two organic and two conventional of the same race and geographic location, all of diary production Results in absolute terms show the highest emissions per year in the organic farm Eco2 (674 t CO2 eq) that have greater resources and greater agricultural food autonomy than the rest. The greenhouse gas emissions obtained per hectare and year are similar to those obtained in the literature, corresponding lower emission to the farm Eco2 (2.61 t eq CO2/ha and year), which demonstrates the effectiveness self-sufficient system when studied per hectare of earth. Intensive farms get three times more emissions per hectare and year that conventional and organic Australian and French references, which demonstrates the effectiveness of the intensive Spanish dairy producer.