By Dori Modney

Canadian Beef Industry Reducing Environmental “Hoofprint”

Jan 18, 2016 | 10:42 AM

LETHBRIDGE:   A new study shows Canada’s cattle industry is producing more beef with less greenhouse gas emissions.

Researchers found a 15 percent reduction in methane emissions by the industry, on a production basis, between 1981 and 2011.

There was also a 16 per cent cut in nitrous dioxide emissions from manure, and a 13 per cent decrease in carbon dioxide per unit of beef production, over the 30-year period.

The study, which was conducted by researchers at the University of Manitoba, the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada research centre in Lethbridge and Environment Canada, showed 29 per cent fewer cattle in the breeding herds and and 24 per cent less land being used for cattle operations.

Dr. Tim McAllister, the Principal Research Scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, explains that the results were achieved partly by feeding cattle grain instead of grass, when they are being fattened up before slaughter, “The largest contribution has been the dramatic increase in carcass weight and in average daily gain, as the result of those changes it takes shorter time to finish a heavier animal, which means the duration that the animal has to emit greenhouse gases is reduced.”

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“We have a greater reliance on high grain diets, which will lower methane emissions, relative to using forage,” said McAllister. He expects these reductions to continue in the future.

“We’ve got tools coming on in the areas of genomics and that – not only from the animal, cattle genome’s perspective, but also from the microbial genome that’s involved in the digestion of the feed and has such a huge impact on the efficiency of feed digestion.”

McAllister noted they are learning more about those systems that even five years ago they couldn’t attempt to address, because the technology wasn’t there.

The Manager for the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, Tom Lynch-Staunton, says there are concerns about the environmental impacts of beef and there are conflicting reports “Really, what we are trying to do with the study is find out exactly where we are so that if there are problems, or if there are opportunities to improve, we can.

Another reason why the study was conducted, was that we wanted to figure out production practices, including nutrition, the use of certain products, pharmaceuticals, etc., and how those have impacted out environmental footprint per kilogram of beef that’s produced.”

You can learn more about the study at the following link:

The Environmental Hoofprint of Canada’s Beef Industry