SCIENCE CONFIRMS THE BEEF INDUSTRY’S ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS

Dec 12, 2023

Canadian beef producers continue to make significant progress in making their operations more environmentally sustainable thanks in part to research and extension efforts.

“We’ve done a lot of work to quantify how beef producers are reducing their environmental footprint,” Dr. Kim Ominski says, citing results showing lower greenhouse gas emissions, water use and ammonia emissions per kilogram of beef produced. Ominski is a professor in the University of Manitoba’s Animal Science Department and this year’s recipient of the Canadian Beef Industry Award for Outstanding Research and Innovation.

She says improvements have occurred in animal productivity (reproductive efficiency, weaning weight, carcass weight) and crop yields (barley grain, barley silage, corn grain and corn silage). Improving productivity allows more beef to be produced from fewer cattle, less feed, land and water, and reduces emissions per kilogram of beef.

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Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.