A study on greenhouse gas emissions from the dairy sector has shown that, although grassland based and mixed systems* both contribute around 50 percent to, grassland based systems, on average, account for 60 percent of the global sector’s emissions, whereas mixed systems are characterized by a lower emission intensity, and are thus estimated to account for only 40 percent of emissions. The average emissions from grassland based systems are 2.72 kg CO2-eq. per kg of fat and protein corrected milk (FPCM), compared to an average of 1.78 kg CO2-eq. per kg of FPCM, in the mixed systems. Within the grassland systems, most of the milk production is found in temperate regions, which also includes the tropical highlands. The share of milk production in the temperate regions (grassland and mixed) is larger than their share in the total emissions, indicating a lower emission per kg of milk than the average.
*Mixed farming systems: are those systems in which more than 10% of the dry matter fed to livestock comes from crop by-products and/or stubble or more than 10% of the value of production comes from non-livestock farming activities (Seré and Steinfeld, 1996).