Kleegras basierte Weidemilch erzeugt geringere Umwelteffekte als Milch von typischen Betrieben in Schleswig-Holstein

High greenhouse gas emissions and nutrient surpluses from specialized dairy farming require new strategies to produce dairy more sustainably. We assessed the environmental impact of two different dairy production systems from (i) a dataset of 209 typical dairy farms in Schleswig-Holstein, northern Germany and (ii) an organic spring calving dairy system grazing leys integrated into a cash crop rotation. A cradle to gate life cycle analyses was conducted on the combined dataset. Compared to the mean of the predominantly indoor farms in the state, the integrated organic system operated with lower GHG emissions; 71 % lower per ha and 51 % lower per kg ECM; at a comparable level of land use efficiency and at 42 % lower nitrogen surplus per kg ECM. Although intensification and increasing milk yield per cow lowered product-based GHG emissions within the dataset of the farms in the state, this did not reach the low level of the organic pasture-based system.