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The Effect of Climate Change on the Canadian Meat Industry

a Canadian Meat Business exclusive by Scott Taylor

When Brian Lemon looks across a field in Southern Manitoba these days, he sees corn. He will admit that he’s not sure whether its Climate Change, a cyclical altering of the seasons or a combination of both, but he does know things are different.

And if the reason happens to be Climate Change, he can see a changing Manitoba beef industry over the next 30-100 years.

“Climate Change will offer different opportunities and a number of challenges,” Lemon said, speaking on his hands-free car phone as he drove across Southern Manitoba in late June.

“For instance, 15 years ago, there wasn’t much corn in Southern Manitoba. But as the growing seasons gets longer, and it has become longer in the last few years, corn has now become a major part of our feeding strategy.

“With seasons changing, we can now rely on a longer growing season and grow more and much better feed corn,” Lemon continued. “This offers up all kinds of different feeding strategies and options for our producers.”


“Improvements in production efficiencies, growth-promoting technologies, and cattle genomics as well as improvements in field crop yields are all good signs for the sustainability of the sector”

 

The Earth’s climate is changing on a constant basis as a result of natural processes. However, 97 per cent of the scientists (almost every scientist who isn’t paid by the fossil fuels industry) who study this topic and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change point out that the current rate of climate change appears to be happening faster than at any time in the last 10,000 years.

The definition of Climate Change is now pretty much in our daily lexicon: “Greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere act as a thermostat controlling the earth’s climate. Concentrations of GHGs have been increasing steadily and this has been linked to human activities including industrialization and release of natural carbon sinks by cultivation and deforestation.”

When it comes to a high-latitude country like Canada, scientists suggest that the warming is expected to be more pronounced than the global average. Over the next 30-50 years, the North, along with the Southern and Central Prairies will probably experience more warming than other regions in North America. We’re actually experiencing it now.

This change in climate (not weather, climate) is expected to have substantial impacts on all aspects of the environment. Regional climate changes, particularly temperature increases, seem to be affecting natural systems on all continents as well as in the oceans. However, it should be noted that scientists have long predicted that Climate Change is increasing the frequency of extreme weather and Lemon has even noticed it in recent years, affecting the way cattle are raised in Manitoba.

“As Climate Change creates a variability in the seasons, we’ve seen an increased amount of rain in this area,” said Lemon, who works daily with farmers and ranchers in the third largest beef-producing province in Canada.

“Its Climate Change issues like that which create challenges. We’re in the midst of an extremely wet cycle. In the last few years, we’ve had more severe rain. Is it something that’s just cyclical or is it Climate Change and will it be with us for a long time? Regardless, all this rain causes issues in regards to water damage and flooding.”

Source: Mearbusinessa

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