Environmental sustainability and economic viability of the Compost Barn system in Brazilian dairy farming

Abstract

Dairy farming has great socioeconomic importance in Brazil, and the last decades have registered a constant evolution of the production chain, seeking to increase quality and production efficiency. In this context, the production systems have intensified and adopted new technologies. The Compost Barn system has stood out as a confinement option for dairy cattle, for its lower implementation cost than other confinement systems and the possibility of giving an adequate destination to the animals' waste. Besides the search for greater production efficiency, the environmental sustainability of agricultural systems has been increasingly discussed, and dairy cattle farming is associated with many potential environmental impacts. It is essential to identify and mitigate them for the consolidation of a production chain socially fair, economically viable and environmentally correct. Thus, this literature review aims to evaluate the economic and environmental feasibility of the Compost barn system within the national dairy farming scenario.