Comprehensive national assessment of the sustainability of beef production

Authors: Rotz, Clarence - Al; STACKHOUSE-LAWSON, KIM - National Cattlemen'S Beef Association (NCBA)

Submitted to: Joint Abstracts of the American Dairy Science and Society of Animal Science
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/21/2016
Publication Date: 7/12/2016
Citation: Rotz, C.A., Stackhouse-Lawson, K. 2016. Comprehensive national assessment of the sustainability of beef production [abstract]. Joint Abstracts of the American Dairy Science and Society of Animal Science. P.1.

Interpretive Summary: An interpretive summary is not required.

Technical Abstract: A national assessment is being conducted by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, a contractor to the beef checkoff, to develop better scientific understanding of the sustainability of beef. This includes a life cycle assessment (LCA) of greenhouse gas emissions along with other environmental, social and economic impacts. Assessments are being made for representative cattle operations in seven geographic regions to form the national total. Producer surveys and visits are made in each region to characterize region-specific production systems, which provides a basis for system simulation and a farm-gate LCA. Assessments have been completed for the Central Plains and Midwestern regions, and the work continues for the western and eastern regions of the country. Results thus far show farm-gate carbon footprints of representative production systems varying from 16 to 28 kg CO2e/kg of carcass weight (CW) with a mean around 20 kg CO2e/kg CW. The cow calf operation is the source of 67 to 77% of this footprint and stocker operations can contribute up to 18% of the footprint. Thus, depending upon whether cattle are backgrounded on pasture or in a feedlot, the grassland-based portion of the system can contribute 67 to 85% of the farm-gate carbon footprint of finished beef cattle. Enteric emission of methane is the source for about 60% of the total greenhouse gas emissions from cow calf and stocker operations and 35% of that from feedlot finishing operations. Nitrous oxide emissions contribute about 20% of the carbon footprint of grazing cattle. Considering post farm gate sources (harvest, retail, restaurant and consumer) the total carbon footprint is about 45 kg CO2e/kg of consumed beef. Of this total, 58 to 73% can be attributed to emissions from grazing cattle and the inputs required to maintain those cattle. A similar analysis can be shown for environmental impacts such as total reactive nitrogen loss where 50 to 70% of this farm-gate footprint can be attributed to grazing cattle. Thus to make substantial reductions in the environmental impacts of beef production, our analysis to this point indicates that mitigation strategies are needed to reduce greenhouse gas and nitrogen emissions from grassland systems. This provides a major challenge for beef cattle research because technologies or strategies for reducing these emissions are essentially unknown.