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This research was funded by National Institute for Agricultural and Food Research and Technology, grant number RTA2013-00063-C03-02. The APC was funded by French National Institute for Research in Agriculture and Environment.

Analysis of institutional authors

Garcia-Gudino, JCorresponding Author

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July 9, 2020
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Article

Life Cycle Assessment of Iberian Traditional Pig Production System in Spain

Publicated to:Sustainability. 12 (2): 627- - 2020-01-02 12(2), DOI: 10.3390/su12020627

Authors: García-Gudiño, J; Monteiro, ANTR; Espagnol, S; Blanco-Penedo, I; Garcia-Launay, F

Affiliations

2 ;‎ Agrocampus Ouest, INRAE, PEGASE, F-35590 St Gilles, France - Author
3 ;‎ Inst Porc, IFIP, F-35651 Le Rheu, France - Author
4 ;‎ SLU, Dept Clin Sci, SE-75007 Uppsala, Sweden - Author
1 ;‎ Inst Agrifood Res & Technol IRTA, Anim Welf Program, Monells 17121, Spain - Author
Agrocampus Ouest, INRAE, PEGASE, F-35590 St Gilles, France - Author
Benestar Animal. IRTA Investigación y Tecnología Agroalimentarias - Author
Inst Agrifood Res & Technol IRTA, Anim Welf Program, Monells 17121, Spain - Author
Inst Porc, IFIP, F-35651 Le Rheu, France - Author
Producció Animal. IRTA Investigación y Tecnología Agroalimentarias - Author
SLU, Dept Clin Sci, SE-75007 Uppsala, Sweden - Author
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Abstract

Traditional Iberian pig production is characterized by outdoor systems that produce animals fed with natural resources. The aim of this study was to assess the environmental impacts of such systems through Life Cycle Assessment. Environmental impacts were analysed per kilogram of live weight at farm gate. Iberian pig production in montanera had the lowest impacts for climate change (CC), acidification (AC), eutrophication (EU) and cumulative energy demand (CED), being 3.4 kg CO2 eq, 0.091 molc H+ eq, 0.046 kg PO43- eq, and 20.7 MJ, respectively, due to the strict use of natural resources (acorns and grass) during the fattening period. As Iberian farms had a greater dependence on compound feed in cebo campo, environmental impacts on CC, AC, EU and CED were 22, 17, 95 and 28% higher, respectively, than with montanera. For land occupation (LO), however, cebo campo had a lower impact (31.6 m(2)year) than montanera (43.0 m(2)year) system. Traditional Iberian pig production systems have environmental impacts higher than conventional systems studied in literature but are similar to other traditional systems. Based on the present assessment, it is necessary to account for the contribution of emissions resulting from the consumption of natural resources to avoid the underestimation of environmental impacts.

Keywords

amino-acidsdigestibilityenvironmental impactsfarming systemsfeedfootprintherbage ingestionlocal breedmanure productionnatural resourcessequestrationAmino-acidsDigestibilityEnvironmental impactsExtensive pig productionFarming systemsFeedFootprintGreenhouse-gas emissionsHerbage ingestionLocal breedManure productionNatural resourcesSequestration

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Sustainability due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency Scopus (SJR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2020, it was in position , thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Energy Engineering and Power Technology. Notably, the journal is positioned above the 90th percentile.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from the Field Citation Ratio (FCR) of the Dimensions source, it yields a value of: 4.74, which indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: Dimensions Jul 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-07-21, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 24

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-07-21:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 82.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 82 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 0.75.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 2 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.
  • Assignment of a Handle/URN as an identifier within the deposit in the Institutional Repository: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12327/625

Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: France; Sweden.

There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: First Author (GARCIA GUDIÑO, JAVIER) .

the author responsible for correspondence tasks has been GARCIA GUDIÑO, JAVIER.