The Fossil Energy and CO2 Emissions Budget for the Barnyards of Livestock Farms in Canada
Citation
Dyer, J.A., Vergé, X.P.C., Desjardins, R.L. and Worth, D.E. 2017 (accepted). The Fossil Energy and CO2 Emissions Budget for the Barnyards of Livestock Farms in Canada. Sustainable Agriculture Research.
Plain language summary
Heating of farm buildings, generation of electricity to power farm buildings, manufacturing of agricultural machinery and the spreading to manure collectively represent the energy required to operate barns and barnyards. This is also known as the barnyard energy budget. In Canada, the barnyard energy budget has declined by roughly 10% between 2001 and 2011, primarily as a result of declining dairy, beef and swine animal populations, with a slightly greater percentage decrease in the associated carbon dioxide emissions. The impact of potential future trends in energy supply and usage in Canada on the farmyard energy budget were investigated using two scenarios: The first eliminated coal-fired energy supply, increased the use of electrical vehicles, and increased the use of electrical heating; while the second converted 20% of the beef meat production to pork production. In the first scenario, dairy farms, followed by beef, swine and poultry farms could realize the greatest percentage reduction in carbon dioxide emissions, with the reductions being greatest in provinces that depend heavily on coal-fired power plants to supply electricity. In the second scenario, roughly a 6% decrease in national carbon dioxide emissions from barnyards could be realized, due to the fact that swine can produce meat more efficiently from a carbon dioxide emissions point of view.
Abstract
This paper describes fossil fuel energy use for on-farm transportation, heating of farm buildings, electricity generation, machinery supply and the spreading of manure. These four terms describe the barnyard energy budget which is driven by population data for beef and dairy cattle, hogs and poultry in Canada. Prior to comparing this energy budget for 2001 and 2011, the year-to-year trends from 1990 to 2014 were analysed. The declines in all livestock populations, except poultry, between 2001 and 2011 reduced the size of the Canadian barnyard energy budget from 25 PJ to 22 PJ. The resulting change in the fossil CO2 emissions between 2001 and 2011 was from 1.62 MtCO2 to 1.36 MtCO2. A sensitivity analysis based on elimination of coal for generating electricity, introduction of e-pickups and increased use of electric heat, reduced fossil CO2 emissions during 2011 from dairy farms by 29%, beef farms by 24%, hog farms by 19% and poultry by 13%. The most affected provinces by this test were Alberta and Saskatchewan because of the heavy dependence on coal in electricity generation in these two provinces. A second sensitivity test based on a Canada-wide 20% reallocation of protein production from beef to pork revealed a potential to reduce barnyard fossil CO2 emissions by 0.011 MtCO2 in Eastern Canada and by 0.079 MtCO2 in Western Canada, due to pork having a lower overall CO2-per-protein value than beef.