Environment Footprints of Beef Cattle Production - Kayce Messner

 https://www.beefitswhatsfordinner.com/newsroom/lifecycle-assessment 

In this week's blog post I’m going to take it away from how agriculture is affecting the land or soil within our environment. This blog will be about how our people in the environment are affected by the beef cattle industry. As I have stated in most of my blog post I was born and raised on a beef cattle farm so for most this information in not uncommon that I am sharing it with you today. As I was reading this article that was sent to me via email, I thought “Oh sweet, what a great little article to write about for class.” With that being said let's dig into the content. 

So, when we are talking about what cattle eat, everything they are eating is something that we already have on hand. Because I know nobody actually goes to the link to read the article these are some really major facts you need to know for the rest of my blog post.  

• Greenhouse gas emissions: Beef production, including the production of animal feed, is responsible for only 3.7 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. This is dramatically lower than the often-misapplied global livestock figure of 14.5 percent2. Furthermore, through continuous improvements in production practices, U.S. beef farmers and ranchers have avoided 2.3 gigatons of carbon emissions since 19753. 
   

• Grain feed consumption: Per pound of beef carcass weight, cattle only consume 2.6 pounds of grain. This is comparable to feed conversion efficiencies of pork and poultry. Additionally, nearly 90 percent of grain-finished cattle feed is inedible to humans, meaning these plants can only provide value to humans when they’re upcycled by cattle into high-quality protein. 
   

• Corn feed consumption: Corn used to feed beef cattle only represents approximately 9 percent of harvested corn grain in the U.S., or 8 million acres. By comparison, 37.5 percent of corn acreage in the U.S. is used for producing fuel ethanol4. 
   

• Water use: On average, it takes 308 gallons of water to produce a pound of boneless beef. Previous reports have estimated upwards of 24,000 gallons5. Additionally, water use by beef is only around 5 percent of U.S. water withdrawals, and this water is recycled. 
   

• Fossil fuel inputs: Total fossil energy input to U.S. beef cattle production is equivalent to 0.7% of total national consumption of fossil fuels. 

(All from https://www.beefitswhatsfordinner.com/newsroom/lifecycle-assessment ) 

Therefore, when people state that the agriculture industry is hurting or causing harm on our environment. I will say this. We are providing jobs for hundreds to thousands of people. We not only have farmers and ranchers but we have butchers, packagers, feed mill workers, all of those who work with or on machinery. Everyone is important in their own way; we depend on each other. That is why American Agriculture is really one big community.