what does it take to produce a pound of beef

Facts about water use and other environmental impacts of beefiness product in Canada

Yep, it takes water to produce beefiness, but in the two.5 meg years since our ancestors started eating meat, we haven't lost a drop yet.

Based on the most recent scientific discipline and extensive calculations of a wide range of factors, information technology is estimated that the pasture-to-plate journey of this important protein source requires virtually ane,910 United states of america gallons per pound (or 15,944 litres per kilogram) of water to go Canadian beef to the dinner table. That's what is known equally the "water footprint" of beef production.

That may sound like a lot, only the fact is it doesn't matter what crop or animal is being produced; food production takes h2o. Sometimes it sounds similar a lot of water, just h2o that is used to produce a feed crop or cattle is non lost. H2o is recycled – sometimes in a very complex biological procedure— and information technology all comes back to be used again.

Water requirements vary with beast size and temperature. Simply on average, a 1250 pound (567 kg) beef steer only drinks about 10 gallons (about 38 litres) of water per twenty-four hours to support its normal metabolic function. That'due south pretty reasonable considering the average person in Canada uses almost 59 gallons (223 litres) per day for consumption and hygiene. And according to the most contempo Statistics Canada information, Canada's combined household and industrial use of h2o is nigh 37.9 billion cubic meters annually (a cubic meter equals most 220 gallons or chiliad litres of water) — we humans are a water-consuming bunch.

Researchers at the University of Manitoba and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) Lethbridge found that in 2011, producing each unit of measurement of Canadian beef used 17% less h2o than xxx years prior. ⁽¹⁾ It besides required 29% less breeding stock, 27% fewer harvested cattle and 24% less country, and produced 15% less greenhouse gases to produce each pound or kilogram in 2011 compared to 1981.⁽²⁾

Only back to the beef manufacture — agriculture in general and beef producers specifically have oftentimes been targeted equally beingness high consumers, even "wasters" of water, taking its price on the environment. However, there's a lot more than to this story – it's non every bit simple equally 1,910 gallons of h2o existence used for each pound of edible beef produced.

If the beef fauna itself only needs nigh 10 gallons of water per solar day to function, what accounts for the rest of the water (footprint) required for that xvi oz steak? Oftentimes in research terms the water measured in the full water footprint is broken into three colour categories. The footprint includes an estimate of how much surface and ground (blue) h2o is used to h2o cattle, make fertilizer, irrigate pastures and crops, procedure beef, etc. And then there is a measure out of how much rain (green) water falls on pasture and feed crops, and finally how much water is needed to dilute runoff from feed crops, pastures and cattle operations (grayness water). Adding these blue, green and grey numbers for cattle produced throughout the world produces a global "water footprint" for beefiness. It is worth noting that more than 95% of the water used in beef product is light-green water — it is going to rain and snow whether cattle are on pasture or not. And it is important to call back of all water used one manner or some other information technology all gets recycled.

If you look at the life bike of a beefiness animal from birth to burger or pasture to pot-roast, the 1,910 gallons per pound is bookkeeping for moisture needed to grow the grass it will eat on pasture and for the hay, grain and other feeds it volition swallow equally it is finished to marketplace weight. It also reflects the water used in the processing and packaging needed to get a whole beast assembled into retail cuts and portion sizes for the consumer. Every step of the procedure requires water.

Since the objective is to produce protein, couldn't we simply grow more pulse crops such as peas, beans, lentils and chickpeas and still meet protein requirements, apply less water and benefit the environment? Permit's have a look at why that theory doesn't hold truthful.

Water is but part of a very large picture

Start of all, whether it is an almanac crop (such equally wheat, canola or peas) or some type of permanent or perennial forage stand (like alfalfa or bromegrass) consumed by cattle, all crops need moisture to grow. (And equally we talk near different crops in the next few paragraphs, it is important to annotation there are two chief types. Most field crops such as wheat, barley and peas are almanac plants. They are generally seeded in the spring, get harvested in the autumn and then die off as winter sets in. Most pasture and forage crops are permanent or perennial plants. Native or natural grass species seemingly live forever, while tame or domestic forage species will remain productive for at least two or three years and often for many years before they need to be reseeded.)

Both almanac crops and forages are of import in Canadian agronomics. But, when people wonder why nosotros just don't produce more plant-based protein by growing  more peas, beans and lentils, it's not but a matter of swapping out every acre of pasture to produce a field of peas. Information technology's a matter of playing to your strengths — recognize the potential of the land for its best intended purpose.

Almanac pulse crops (like peas, beans and lentils) utilise more than water than grass. For dry out pea production, for example, it takes nigh 414,562 gallons of water per acre of land to grow peas. Compare that to total Canadian beefiness production of most 2.46 one thousand thousand pounds of beef produced on nearly 57 million acres land to grow the pasture, forage and other feed for the cattle herd, and it works out to about 78,813 gallons per acre of state used for beef product.

This means that not every acre beefiness cattle are raised on is suited to crop production . Dry peas need more than than five times as much water per acre (414,652 ÷ 78,813 = five.three) than the grass does. Much of the land used to raise forage for beef cattle doesn't receive acceptable moisture or have the right soil conditions to support crop production, but it can produce types of grass that thrives in drier weather.

Beefiness industry plays an of import various role

The fact is, today's beefiness cattle were not the first bovid species to set human foot on what we now consider Canadian agricultural state. For thousands and thousands of years herds of as many as thirty million bison roamed across North America, including Canada, eating forages and depositing nutrients (manure) back into the soil and living in ecological harmony with thousands of plant and animal species.

Today, the five million caput of beef cattle being raised on Canadian farms can't duplicate that natural system, but as they are managed properly they do provide a valuable contribution to the environment merely every bit the bison did.  Beef cows and the pastures they apply assist to preserve Canada'south shrinking natural grassland ecosystems past providing plant and habitat biodiversity for migratory birds and endangered species, too as habitat for a host of upland creature species. Properly managed grazing systems also benefit wetland preservation, while the diversity of plants all aid to capture and store carbon from the air in the soil.

Where practice cattle fit?

Forages (pastures and harvested roughage) account for approximately 80 per cent of the feed used by beef cattle in Canada. Near a third (31 per cent) of Canada'due south agricultural state is pasture. This land is not suited for annual crop production, but information technology tin can abound grass, which needs to be grazed by animals to remain growing and productive.

Canada's beefiness herd is primarily located in the prairies. The southern prairies are drought-prone, and the more northerly growing seasons are too brusk for many crops. Central and Eastern Canada by and large have college rainfall and longer growing seasons than the prairies, but not all this farmland is suitable for ingather production either. Much of this land is too boggy, stony, or bushy to let cultivation, but information technology can grow grass. Grass that cattle live on for most of their lives.

Grass and other range and pasture plants contain fiber that people can't digest, merely cattle take a specialized microbial population in their stomach (rumen) that allows them to digest cobweb, make utilize of the nutrients, and catechumen them into high-quality protein that humans can digest. Beefiness cattle production allows us to produce nutritious protein on land that isn't environmentally or climatically suited to tillage and crop production.

H2o cycles

Simply focusing on water utilise per pound of production ignores the h2o cycle. The water cycle is important – humans, wheat, corn, lentils, poultry, pork, eggs, milk, forages and beef product all apply water,but they don't use information technology upwards . They aren't sponges that incessantly blot water. Nearly all the water that people or cattle consume ends up back in the environment through manure, sweat, or water vapor.

We know that most of the water plants take up from the soil is transpired back into the air. Like city water, the water that beef processing facilities take out of the river at i stop of the institute is treated and returns to the same river at the other end of the found. New technologies to recycle and re-employ water can reduce the amount of h2o needed for beefiness processing past ninety per cent.

Storing greenhouse gases

Plants — pasture and hayland, all crops really — assistance to capture and store carbon. Plants have carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, contain the carbon into their roots, stems, leaves, flowers and seeds, and release oxygen dorsum into the atmosphere. Because perennial plants (nigh hay and pastureland) live for many years, they develop an all-encompassing root system which will eventually disuse and get part of the soil carbon. Because these permanent or perennial pastures are not cultivated and reseeded every year, the carbon sequestered by these plants remains in the soil rather than being released dorsum into the atmosphere. Equally a result, numerous studies have documented that grasslands, which remain healthy with grazing cattle, take more carbon stored in the soil than next annual cropland.

Pastures protect the soil

When land is cultivated to produce annual crops such as wheat, barley, canola, peas and lentils, the disturbance of soil releases soil carbon to the temper. There is too the take a chance of soil erosion. In Western Canada, our predecessors learned this the hard way. Not knowing any amend near the bear upon of tillage of fields to produce crops, serious losses occurred across Canada —peculiarly notable on the prairies in the 'Dirty Thirties'. Cultivation led to the loss of 40-fifty per cent of the organic carbon from prairie soils, and 60-70 per cent from central and eastern Canadian soils. But we learned from those mistakes and today, most almanac crops are grown nether reduced or no-till cropping systems — crops are seeded with minimal soil disturbance. Unlike commercial fertilizers, using manure as a fertilizer also replenishes organic matter in these soils.

Maintaining permanent grassland and perennial pastures drastically reduces the gamble of soil loss due to wind and h2o erosion, and keeps stored carbon stored in the soil. The indicate is that cattle have an splendid fit on productive agronomical land not suited to annual crop production.

Soil health improves

Getting dorsum to the water topic, bated from benefits noted earlier, these permanent grasslands and perennial pastures in fact help to conserve moisture every bit roots and plant matter aid to improve soil structure and assist rain and snow cook percolate down through the soil. That's known as h2o infiltration. As a full general rule, when lands are left undisturbed, only ten per cent of precipitation runs off the land, 40 per cent evaporates and 50 per cent goes down into the soil to enter both shallow and deep groundwater reserves. When soils are disturbed, water infiltration is reduced.

It'southward non just expressionless roots that provide environmental benefits. Considering perennial forages aren't cultivated, and frequently abound in dry conditions, they grow extensive root systems in their search for wet.

An example of one important plant species is the legume family. There are varieties of legumes that make first-class pasture and hay crops. They are known every bit fodder legumes and well-nigh are perennial. But there is another whole co-operative of the legume family that humans consume at the dinner table. These legumes are known as pulse crops and that includes, peas, beans, lentils and chickpeas. Most almanac pulse crops are used for human food, but even these produce by-products (e.g. stems, pods, shrivelled seeds, etc.) that are non edible for humans but that cattle can catechumen to high quality, nutritious poly peptide.

What's interesting about legumes is how they benefit the soil. For example, forage legumes similar alfalfa develop roots that penetrate 53 to 63 per cent deeper into the soil than chickpeas, lentils, and other pulse crops. All legumes as well have a natural ability to produce an important soil nutrient known as nitrogen. All legumes tin can "fix" or capture nitrogen from the air and convert it into soil nitrogen that can improve soil fertility. Forage legumes can fix upwardly to twice every bit much nitrogen per acre in the soil as annual legume (or pulse) crop.

Lands that are decumbent to periodic flooding or drought do good from the permanent plant cover that forages provide. The roots and vegetation continue the soil in place so that it doesn't erode, wash away in a flood or blow away during a drought.

Home on the range

Again, when y'all ask the question, why don't nosotros only grow more annual crops, remember that cattle and soil aren't the but living things afflicted when grassland is converted to farmland. Grasslands also provide habitat for minor and large mammals, hawks, nesting birds, songbirds and pollinating insects. Converting natural grassland to crop production results in considerable biodiversity loss, as the native plants, insects, birds, and wild fauna that crave undisturbed natural habitats practise not thrive nearly as well under annual cropping systems.

Most of Canada'due south native grasslands have already been converted to ingather product. This has led to considerable population losses in some species, with up to 87 per cent population declines among some grassland bird species. So maintaining grasslands and perennial pastures provides a huge ecological benefit.

Crops and cattle go well together

Information technology is not an all or nothing scenario — crops, cattle, and grasslands need each other. For case, canola crops yield and ripen better when they are pollinated past bees. Because an entire field is seeded at the aforementioned time, all the canola plants flower at the aforementioned time, and each plant simply flowers for ii or three weeks. Grasslands provide a home for a wide range of plants that all flower at unlike times. That means bees have lots of plants to assist support them during long periods when almanac crops aren't flowering. Over 140 bee species are resident in Canadian grasslands; bee abundance and diversity are positively related to the presence of grasslands.

Annual crops can also serve double duty. Canadian farmers produced virtually eight one thousand thousand tonnes of barley in 2018. A portion of that was seeded to what'south known equally malting barley varieties that produce barley suitable for the brewing industry. If the grain doesn't meet specifications for brewing standards (for conditions-related reasons, for example), information technology can still exist used as good quality livestock feed. Information technology's a similar situation with the 32 million tonnes of wheat produced annually. If it doesn't run into milling, export or other industrial end-utilize standards, it can be used equally practiced quality feed for cattle.

All part of a system

To repeat, yeah it takes water to produce beefiness, but on a broader scale, beef cattle are a vital part of an integrated system. Cattle need grass, grass needs grazing to remain vital, grass protects the soil, good for you soil helps to conserve moisture, plants provide feed and habitat for a myriad of species, grains not suitable for the human-food market place brand excellent livestock feed, cattle manure provides a valuable natural fertilizer to pastures and crops, and the whole system results in production of a high quality, healthy poly peptide source for humans.

All nutrient systems rely on h2o, but the well-nigh important thing to remember is the h2o is not used up. All water ultimately gets recycled.

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