To support policy and product design, there is a need to develop innovative framework and indicators to estimate the sustainability of nutrient use efficiency in livestock sector. This research proposes a comprehensive framework, based on life-cycle thinking, to assess the sustainability of nitrogen and phosphorus use. The proposed framework represents nutrient flows in typical livestock supply chain from the “cradle-to-primary-processing-gate”, including crop/pasture production, animal production, and primary processing stage as well as the transportation of feed materials, live-animals or animal products. It also tests three complementary indicators including the life-cycle nutrient use efficiency (life-cycle-NUE), life-cycle net nutrient balance (life-cycle-NNB) and nutrient hotspot index (NHI). Results showed that the three indicators are suitable to describe different aspects of nitrogen and phosphorus dynamics in livestock supply chains. This study was published in the Journal of Cleaner Production. To read more, click here.
