Benchmarking Sustainability for the US Poultry Industry A Lifecycle Assessment of US Broiler Production for the Year 2010 Presentation at LCA XVI on September 26th, 2016. Presenter: Ben Putman Study Authors: Ben Putman, Greg Thoma, Jasmina Burek, and Marty Matlock

Introduction The US Poultry and Egg Association and the National Chicken Council are implementing a sustainability strategy for the industry based on a continuous improvement framework. The University of Arkansas developed a strategy for implementing this framework. LCA of US poultry production for the national average in 2010. The year 2010 will serve as a benchmark for continuous improvement.

Goal and Scope Definition Purpose: Provide a benchmark for the US poultry industry and contribute to the NAL LCA Commons Functional Unit: 1000 kilograms of live poultry at the farm gate System Boundaries: All direct and indirect emissions associated with the production of raw materials used in the cultivation of feedstuffs to the production of meat-type broiler chickens Impact Category: Global warming potential (IPCC 2013) Resource Use: Water depletion, land occupation, and non-renewable energy Define the purpose, functional unit, impact categories, and system boundaries

System Boundaries Impacts begin with one day old chicks at the grandparent generation and end with live broilers at the farm gate Only electricity use by the hatcheries was included in the inventory Allocation by physical relationships Treatment of litter according to LEAP (Livestock Environmental Assessment and Performance) guidelines

Biophysical Allocation Hens grown to produce hatching eggs represent a system having three products: spent hens, eggs, and litter Allocation according to energy requirements using FAO LEAP guidelines for poultry: Spent hens according to growth energy Eggs according to the production energy Litter according to the heat increment for feeding Heat increment for feeding: the energy expended by the birds for feeding and digestion, separate from maintenance energy

Lifecycle inventory data were collected from multiple sources: Peer-reviewed literature Government data and reports Poultry textbooks Industry handbooks Energy audits Discussions with experts in academia and industry Lifecycle Inventory Collect the data necessary to determine the inputs and outputs relevant to the system under assessment

Crop Production Characteristics Inputs per 1000kg harvested Corn Soybeans Wheat Land (m2) 1039 3510 3535 Irrigation water (m3) 51 74 107 Herbicide (kg) 0.27 0.55 0.13 Insecticide (kg) 0.01 0.02 N, fertilizer (kg) 15.8 1.1 22.2 P, fertilizer (kg) 5.5 4.2 7.6 K, fertilizer (kg) 5.7 31.5 1.5 Diesel (L) 5.2 17.1 17.4 Fuel oil (L) 6.9 10 7.5 Electricity (kWh) 32.5 47.8 69.2 Emissions N2O, residues (kg) 0.14 0.24 NO3, residues (kg) 9.61 16.71 16.57 N2O, fertilizers (kg) 0.33 0.46 NH3, fertilizers (kg) 1.92 2.69 NO3, fertilizers (kg) 19.24 1.38 26.95 PO4, fertilizers (kg) 0.57 0.43 0.79 5 year averages for yields (2005- 2009) Crop protection chemicals per USDA ERS 2008 Irrigation water use from NASS 2007 and FRIS 2008 Emissions via IPCC Tier 1 Crop production processes (i.e. harvesting, irrigation pumps) from USEI v2.2 Note: Values in this table are presented as per 1000kg harvested. These numbers look much different when expressed in terms of inputs/outputs per unit of land.

Broiler Ration Compositions Poultry Rations Broiler Ration Compositions Feeds Hens Broilers Corn, No. 2 59.32% 64.17% Soybean meal 20.96% 24.04% Wheat shorts 0.54% 3.13% Poultry byproduct meal (PBM) 6.45% 4.89% Tallow 2.14% 1.67% Limestone 10.08% 1.14% Salt 0.23% 0.35% Dical Phosphate 0.07% 0.18% Vitamin mix 0.10% L Lysine 0.00% 0.08% DL-Methionine 0.11% 0.25% Formulated with consultation from poultry science researchers and a nutrition textbook Byproducts allocated by mass- adjusted energy content Soybean meal, wheat shorts, and poultry byproducts PBM and tallow based on results from this study Unit processes in USEI used for all other ingredients

Models were built with the following characteristics: Separate models for broilers, pullets, and laying hens Growth/production curves based on performance objective tables from Aviagen Broiler FCR, market weight, and mortality targets from National Chicken Council (US averages for 2010) Live Poultry Models Deterministic, spreadsheet-based models estimate growth, feed consumption, and mortality

Poultry Production – Bird Characteristics Production Length: 47 days Market Weight: 2.59 kg Feed Conversion: 1.94 kg feed/kg LW Mortality: 4% Broilers Productivity: 186 eggs per hen Spent Hen Weight: 3.85 kg Feed Conversion: 2.98 kg feed/dozen eggs Mortality: 8% Hens (broiler breeders)

Poultry Production – Operations Energy consumption based on poultry house audits in Arkansas, Kentucky, and Georgia Energy usage independent of bird growth models Energy use is assumed to be independent of housing type Operator has more influence than any one specific housing attribute Bedding material and cooling water also estimated on a production-normalized basis Barn type Utility Basis Diesel (gal) Electricity (kWh) Propane Broiler1 0.5564 86.99 12.055 Per 1000 kg LW Breeder2 0.1652 17.88 0.0031 Per 1000 eggs Pullet2 4.0043 650.3 96.101 Per 1000 pullets 1Production-weighted averages 2Only includes data from Dunkley et al. 2015 (Georgia)

Fraction of litter from Poultry Litter Disposal transaction Fraction of litter from  Classification Broilers1 Breeders2 Sold 50.0% 36.3% Coproduct Hauled off for fee 3.20% 4.2% Waste Bartered 36.1% 39.0% Residual Given away 10.7% 20.5% 1 USDA 2011 2 APHIS 2011 Litter as a coproduct, a residual, and a waste, with burdens distributed according to economics of its removal from the barn US Poultry industry national averages for 2010 to determine the distributions Biophysical allocation used when litter is a coproduct

Life Cycle Impact Assessment Summary of Results Feed rations account for 70-94% of the impacts Grandparent generation accounts for < 1% Spent hens account for ~4% of impacts Life Cycle Impact Assessment GWP, water depletion, non-renewable energy use, and land occupation considered key performance indicators (KPIs) for US poultry industry

Results by Functional Unit Impact category Unit Poultry meat Contribution from Broilers Spent Hens IPCC GWP 100a kg CO2e 1435 1372 63 Non renewable energy MJ 14457 13847 611 Water Depletion m3 117 112 5 Ag. land occupation m2a 3251 3118 133 GWP: 4.4% hens NRE: 4.2% WD: 4.3% ALO: 4.1%

Production Phase Contributions Impact category Broilers Parents Grandparents IPCC GWP 100a 90.50% 9.42% 0.08% Non renewable, fossil 90.90% 9.02% 0.08% Water Depletion 91.05% 8.88% 0.08% Ag land occupation 91.17% 8.76% 0.07%

Impacts by Sources Contributing > 1%

Impacts by Source, Continued

Comparison to other studies Impact Category Functional unit Year Country Energy Use (MJ) GWP (kg CO2e) Land occupation (m2a) Water depletion (m3) Source 1000kg LW broiler 2006 US 14959 1395 X Pelletier, N. 2008. 2010 FR 19100 2220 6617 da Silva et al 2014 BRA 18000 2060 3603 " 1000kg chicken meat 2012 187 Mekonnen and Hoekstra 2011 DEN 1810 Nielsen et al 2011 UK 17759 3087 3920 3.087 Leinonen et al. 2012 2009 12790 2015 2687 Agri-BALYSE 1000kg LW poultry 8400 3199 4480 Williams et al 2006 13988 1386 3150 113 This study 1000kg LW Poultry 14457 1435 3251 117

Interpretation So what? Sensitivity analysis – How does the model respond to methodological changes? Conclusions – What does it all mean? Future work – Where do we go from here? Interpretation Identify the forces driving the results and determine their associated sensitivity and uncertainty. Evaluate the completeness of the study, its limitations, and draw conclusions.

Sensitivity Analysis: Crop Byproduct Allocation allocated crop byproduct burdens by their mass and price (economic allocation), in addition to their mass- adjusted energy content (the chosen standard) In general, mass increased impact, economic decreased The method of byproduct allocation was shown not to affect conclusions Water depletion is in units of 100L because m3 made those results too small compared with the others and liters made them too large.

Sensitivity Analysis: Litter Application Emissions Litter as coproduct, residual, or waste in comparison to a distribution of all three Highlights the influence from litter application emissions The differences between modeling litter as a residual and a waste only affect GWP, therefore the other three KPIs are unaffected in those scenarios

Future works Further analysis Retrospective analysis Sensitivity analysis Ration optimization More impact categories Retrospective analysis Manuscript under review Update model for 2015 In progress Poultry Production Calculator Broiler feed is largest contributor, so what do we do about it? FCR: Genetics Operations Nutrition