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ARS Home » Northeast Area » University Park, Pennsylvania » Pasture Systems & Watershed Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #353353
Title: Environmental footprints of beef cattle production in the United States

Author
item Rotz, Clarence - Al
item ASEM-HIABLIE, SENORPE - Consultant
item PLACE, SARA - National Cattlemen'S Beef Association (NCBA)
item THOMA, GREG - University Of Arkansas

Submitted to: Agricultural Systems
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/11/2018
Publication Date: 11/27/2018
Citation: Rotz, C.A., Asem-Hiablie, S., Place, S., Thoma, G. 2018. Environmental footprints of beef cattle production in the United States. Agricultural Systems. 169:1-13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agsy.2018.11.005.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agsy.2018.11.005

Interpretive Summary: The U.S. beef industry is a major contributor to the national and global food system and economy with a potential for increasing production to feed the growing domestic population while meeting expanding export markets. Increasing productivity in an environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable manner is of concern to both producers and consumers. Our cattle production systems are very complex with many components and interactions, so quantifying and measuring sustainability is challenging. Through a comprehensive national assessment, important environmental impacts of beef cattle production were determined for each of seven regions and the entire country. These data provide a baseline for comparison to future assessments and the evaluation of potential benefits of mitigation strategies. This also provides information to support a complete life cycle assessment of beef including packing, processing, marketing, consumption and waste handling.

Technical Abstract: The environmental impacts of beef cattle production and their effect on the overall sustainability of beef have become a national and international concern. Our objective was to quantify important environmental impacts of beef cattle production in the United States. Surveys and visits of farms, ranches and feedlots were conducted throughout seven regions (Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, Northern Plains, Southern Plains, Northwest and Southwest) to determine common practices and characteristics of cattle production. These data along with other information sources were used to create about 150 representative production systems throughout the country, which were simulated with the Integrated Farm System Model using local soil and climate data. The simulations quantified the performance and environmental impacts of beef cattle production systems for each region. A farm-gate life cycle assessment was used to quantify resource use and emissions for all production systems including traditional beef breeds and cull animals from the dairy industry. Regional and national totals were determined as the sum of the production system outputs times the number of cattle represented by each simulated system. The average annual greenhouse gas and reactive N emissions associated with beef cattle production over the past five years was determined to be 244 ± 26 Tg CO2e and 1789 ± 138 Gg N, respectively. Total fossil energy use was found to be 577 ± 55 PJ and blue water consumption was 22.4 ± 3.4 Pg. Environmental intensities expressed per kg of carcass weight produced were 21.5 ± 2.3 kg CO2e, 157 ± 12 g N, 50.7 ± 4.8 MJ, and 1970 ± 300 L, respectively. These farm-gate values are being combined with post farm-gate sources of packing, processing, distribution, retail, consumption and waste handling to produce a full life cycle assessment of U.S. beef. This study is the most detailed, yet comprehensive, study conducted to date to provide baseline measures for the sustainability of U.S. beef.