Global analysis of nutritional strategies to mitigate the environmental impacts of dairy production: the case of supplementing diets with microencapsulated B vitamins
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Over the last decade, policymakers and dairy producers worldwide have faced the challenge of reducing the environmental impact of dairy production while continuing to meet societal needs for high-quality and nutritious protein sources. Given this, the objective of the present study was to assess the net environmental impact of adopting different nutrition strategies with and without supplementing rumen-protected B vitamins (RPBV, B vitamins that are microencapsulated to bypass rumen degradation in cows and be absorbed in the small intestines) in dairy milk production. Seven representative regional dairy production systems across the United States, Canada, Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Australia, and France were investigated, utilizing a total mixed ration (TMR) feeding program supplemented with 3 g of RPBV. The estimated climate change impact scores for all control production scenarios ranged from 1.08 to 1.65 kg CO 2 -eq/kg fat protein-corrected milk (FPCM). However, the impact of climate change per kg of FPCM decreased by 5.6–18.0 % when RPBV was supplemented on top of the TMR feeding program. The highest and lowest climate change impact reductions were observed for the RPBV production scenarios in Mexico and Colombia, where the impacts decreased from 1.65 to 1.36 kg CO 2 -eq/FPCM and from 1.49 to 1.41 kg CO 2 -eq, respectively. Additionally, the impacts of agricultural land use, water consumption, and acidification, as well as eutrophication potential, were reduced by 3.0–16.3 % (with an average reduction of 7.4 % across all scenarios) when the TMR feeding programs were supplemented with 3 g of RPBV. The observed impact reduction could be attributed to improvements in milk production, which varied across different regions, with milk yields ranging from 3.3 % to 19.4 % above those of the control production scenario. Additionally, there were reductions in enteric methane (up to 2.4 %) and nitrogen emissions (up to 10 %). In dairy cows, RPBV acts as an enzyme co-factor at the cellular level by improving the efficiency of key pathways involved in energy, fat, and protein metabolism, which consequently increases milk yield and feed efficiency. The manufacturing and transportation of RPBV to the seven regional destinations examined in the current study had a minimal impact on the total environmental footprint of dairy production systems. The null hypothesis was rejected, indicating significant differences in results, as the p-value for all impacts and pairs (control and RPBV scenarios per 500 Monte Carlo runs) was less than 0.05, which is considered statistically significant. Overall, supplementation with RPBV constitutes a valuable nutritional strategy to support ongoing efforts and innovations in driving sustainable dairy production.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".