ERA Multi-criteria assessment, decision support and management tools for sustainable circular mixed farming systems for dairy production

The combined production of milk and beef is the supporting beam of many European countries. Nevertheless, the industry is experiencing great pressure to become more climate-friendly at all levels. DairyMix aims to solve some of these challenges by developing decision support models and management tools for dairy farmers and stakeholders. The project has now comleted the data collection from selected focus farms in all partner countries and incorporating these into LCA analyses. Calibration of the old OTICE sensors revealed that they were malfunctioning. Therefore a new set of OTICE sensors for barn climate monitoring has been tested in Germany and five sensors will also be mounted in a commercial modern dairy farm In Norway for further data collection. Onwards towards the end of the project period, the modelling and development of the multi-criteria analysis tool is in focus. Analyses on carbon and nutrient utilization, circularity and environmental and economic consequences are still ongoing. Several practical workshops and project management meetings have been conducted the last year, with emphasis on weighting the sustainability indicators from the gathered environmental, economic and social data from all focus farms. The vast majority of this work have taken place online via zoom or teams virtual meetings. We are now planning to attend the annual general meeting in October i Rennes in France where the final stage of the project will be planned and preliminar results will be discussed. Leading the work package on dissemination and publication efforts, NIBIO will focus on specific tasks and deliverables, effectively collecting information on publication and dissemination efforts in all participant countries. The website is continuously updated with news and information and we are also administrating a LinkedIn account for the project. Comunication with the outside world and stakeholder groups are in strong focus. The project partners have continued articipating in several conferences and technical meetings and presented the project worldwide. There are also several scientific articles being published the last year. We will ask for an extension of the project period, to match the extension of the project at EU level. As a main output from this project we anticipate the completion of the interactive application, the MilKey/DairyMix multi-player platform, which aims to analyse farm data and to evaluate the effects of changes in operations at farm and regional levels with respect to environmental, economic and social sustainability indicators. The application will target farmers and other stakeholders in agriculture and will also be relevant to society and decision makers. DairyMix is led by the Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy in Germany and involves partners in Ireland, Norway, Italy, Belgium, Argentina, Poland and France.

Dairy production systems (DPS) are an essential backbone of European agriculture. DairyMix applies a systems approach for sustainable dairy production systems that are targeted to key European regions and beyond. DairyMix is structured in five work packages. WP1 is dedicated to coordination and management. Case studies, data from the extensive DATAMAN database, Eurostat data and data from OTICE, the online barn climate and emission control tool will be collected and analysed in WP2. WP2 data are then fed into WP3 for detailed modelling analysis on carbon and nutrient utilization and circularity of mixed farming systems for dairy production. WP4 brings WP2 and WP3 together for a multi-criteria assessment of mixed farming systems for dairy production based on indicators for circularity and efficient resource use developed in WP2 and WP3. WP5 details a range of communication and dissemination activities and hosts the interactive web application - the MilKey/DairyMix platform - to analyse farm data and to evaluate effects of changes in farming practice at farm and regional level with regard to environmental, economic and societal sustainability indicators. This output will have farmers and other stakeholders in the primary sector as target group, and will also be relevant for society and policy makers.