Offered Papers Theme B: Grassland and the Environment

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Our highly mechanised agriculture largely depends on ever declining stocks of fossil energy and hence contributes to global warming through the emission of greenhouse gases. Therefore, energy use (efficiency) is an important aspect of eco-efficient and sustainable agricultural production systems. In this study, we estimated direct and indirect energy use on a representative set of specialised dairy farms in Flanders (334 farm datasets in 1989-1990 and 147 farm datasets in 2000-2001) and we calculated their energy use efficiency. We studied the observed evolution between 1989-1990 and 2000-2001.

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Energy Use and Energy Use Efficiency of Specialised Dairy Farms in Flanders

Our highly mechanised agriculture largely depends on ever declining stocks of fossil energy and hence contributes to global warming through the emission of greenhouse gases. Therefore, energy use (efficiency) is an important aspect of eco-efficient and sustainable agricultural production systems. In this study, we estimated direct and indirect energy use on a representative set of specialised dairy farms in Flanders (334 farm datasets in 1989-1990 and 147 farm datasets in 2000-2001) and we calculated their energy use efficiency. We studied the observed evolution between 1989-1990 and 2000-2001.