Other issues to be discussed are NH 3 emissions Manure storage and application system Fossil energy consumption Chemical use in feed etc. Feed and forage production. Assessing the impact of livestock systems - an adapted methodology on the basis of the environmental impact assessment. The present paper reports the main results of our efforts. The present paper suggests to use a list of indicators that characterize the impact of a particular farm on the environment.
Emphasis is put on the effects related to livestock.
Indicators that describe the pressure of a livestock husbandry system on the state of the environment were defined at farm level. With the aim of minimizing the expenses for data collection the book keeping system is used as an important data base. Data from conventional and organic central German farms were collected and analysed to optimize the methodology. Herd averages are used alternatively to estimate barn nutrient flows. Farmgate balances for the main nutrients offer additional information about the efficiency of nutrient input.