Life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC) of organic Mediterranean Italian dairy buffalo: Comparison of three feeding strategies

Demand for Italian Mediterranean buffalo milk is increasing because of its nutritional profile and its role in high-value dairy products such as Mozzarella di Bufala Campana. However, published estimates of its climate change impacts in Italy vary widely, and evidence on the combined environmental and economic performance of alternative feeding strategies in organic buffalo systems remains limited. This study evaluates the environmental and economic impact of three feeding strategies in an Italian organic buffalo dairy farm through Life Cycle Assessment and Life Cycle Costing. One liter of raw milk produced at the farm gate was used as functional unit. The three strategies differed in terms of feed production: a fully dry ration (Scenario 1), a mixed dry–fresh ration including zero-grazing ryegrass (Scenario 2), and a mixed ration combining dry feed with fresh ryegrass and on-farm produced ryegrass haylage (Scenario 3). Scenario 3 showed the best overall performance. Compared with Scenario 1, it reduced non-cancer human toxicity from 7.32E-8 to 5.25E-8 CTUh (−28%) and cancer human toxicity from 2.10E-9 to 1.84E-9 CTUh (−12%), freshwater eutrophication from 3.75E-4 to 3.30E-4 kg P equivalent (−12%), marine eutrophication from 1.59E-2 to 1.36E-2 kg N eq. (−14%), and water use from 4.55 to 4.02 m 3 world equivalent (−12%), with a smaller reduction in climate change from 2.90 to 2.83 kg CO 2 eq. (−2%), while Scenario 2 delivered more moderate benefits. However, neither scenario was uniformly better across all categories, Scenario 3 involved increases below 1% in acidification, terrestrial eutrophication, particulate matter and freshwater ecotoxicity, while Scenario 2 showed a larger increase in freshwater ecotoxicity (+6%). At farm level, shifting from Scenario 1 to Scenario 3 would save approximately 307,000 m 3 world equivalent of water and up to 41 tons CO 2eq per year. Feed production remained the dominant environmental hotspot across all scenarios, while Scenario 3 reduced total production costs from 1.31 €/L to 1.11 €/L (15.4%) compared to Scenario 1. In conclusion, greater forage self-sufficiency improved both environmental and economic performance in organic buffalo systems.