Environmental footprint of milk production from Mediterranean sheep systems E. Vagnoni 1 , A. Franca 2 , L. Breedveld 3 , C. Porqueddu 2 , R. Ferrara 1 , P. Duce 1,* 1 Institute of Biometeorology, National Research Council – CNR IBIMET, Sassari, Italy 2 Institute for Animal Production System in Mediterranean Environment, National Research Council – CNR ISPAAM, Sassari, Italy 3 2B s.r.l. – Mogliano Veneto (TV), Italy  Corresponding author. E-mail: p.duce@ibimet.cnr.it ABSTRACT In the Euro-Mediterranean countries the sheep milk production is a significant sector that is currently going through a deep structural cri- sis. Since eco-sustainability of production systems and mitigation of climate change are European priorities, optimizing the environmental footprint of dairy sheep farms could become the access key of farmers for receiving financial support and achieve a more environmental- ly-sound agriculture. The main objectives of this paper were to compare the environmental impacts of sheep milk production from three different dairy farms in Sardinia (Italy), characterized by different input levels, and to identify the hotspots for improving the environmen- tal performances of each farm, by using an LCA analysis. The LCA conducted using different functional units (1 kg of Fat Protein Cor- rected Milk and 1 ha of Utilized Agricultural Area) and different assessment methods (IPCC, ReCiPe, and Blue Virtual Water) led to a more objective evaluation of the environmental performances of farms. Keywords: dairy sheep farming systems; environmental impacts; Life Cycle Assessment; agriculture multifunctionality; eco-sustainable livestock. 1. Introduction The dairy sheep production is a significant sector for the European Mediterranean countries. Sardinia (Italy) is the most important EU region for sheep milk production, with more than 3.2 million ewes  about 3.5% of the EU total (EUROSTAT, 2012)  and a milk production of about 330.000 t year -1 (Osservatorio Regionale per l’Agricoltura, 2012), which represents more than 12% of the total European production (EUROSTAT, 2012). More than half of Sardinian sheep milk production is addressed to cheese industry for “Pecorino Romano PDO” (Protected Designation of Origin, European quality label) production (Furesi et al., 2013). “Pecorino Romano PDO” is one of the main Italian PDO product (ISMEA, 2012) and 95% of its production derives from Sardinian cheese factories (Idda et al., 2010). The dairy sheep farming system in Sardinia presents different degrees of intensification, depending basically on the geographical location of farms, which affect key-traits such as arable land availability, soil fertility and possibility for irrigation (Caballero et al., 2009; Porqueddu, 2008). In the last decades, Sardinian sheep production systems suffered a serious and continuous loss of competitiveness, due to several internal and external factors that caused a deep structural crisis in this traditional sector. As production systems’ eco-sustainability and climate change mitigation are on top of the European agenda, minimizing the ecological footprint of farms represents a key factor for farmers to obtaining public incentives and for enhancing the multifunctionality of agricultural systems. Therefore, the optimization of environmental performances could be a crucial factor to improve competitiveness of sheep farming, particularly in marginal areas. For this purpose it is essential to assess the environmental footprints of these livestock systems and to identify the weak points of the production chain where to t ake actions for reducing the farm’s environmental impact (FAO, 2010). The environmental impacts (including greenhouse gases emissions) of animal production systems can be evaluated by using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach (De Boer, 2003). However, when applied to agriculture, the LCA analysis presents some challenges due to the intensive nature of required data, their limited availability and the multiple-output nature of production (FAO, 2010). Most of the research literature has been focused on intensive livestock systems of dairy cattle (Milani et al., 2011). To our knowledge, very little research studies have been conducted on life cycle assessment of sheep milk. A good example is given by Michael (2011), who made a detailed analysis of the resource use and emissions of sheep milk production in Australia, as part of a wider study on selected “new animal products” industries. On the other hand, several studies have been conducted to evaluate specific impacts of dairy sheep farming systems on soil, water, LCA Food 2014 Draft Proceedings 2014-11-04 1408