113. Environmental Impacts of N. American Ruminant Livestock Production – Where Have We Been and Where Are We Headed?.

Abstract In recent decades, a considerable focus of the ruminant nutrition community has been on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from cattle. This has traditionally been focused on reducing enteric methane (CH4) emissions produced as a byproduct of ruminal fermentation. Fortunately, the production of this gas has a long history of research as it is an energetic loss (2-12% of gross energy intake). Over these recent decades, several promising strategies have been, or are concurrently, being developed to reduce the environmental impact of ruminants including genetic selection, direct methanogenesis inhibitors, and other feed additives. Additionally, new accounting methodologies have been proposed that more aptly capture the behavior of atmospheric CH4, potentially giving the ruminant sector a more accurate estimate of environmental impact, but also indicates that for some livestock, such a dairy production, more focus should be given towards manure management and its subsequent emissions. Given the body of work that has been conducted, producer adoption and carbon payments is the next frontier to achieve widespread and meaningful reductions in emissions. Furthermore, the development of farm-level GHG quantification methodologies will be required to quell concerns around green washing by providing demonstrable GHG reductions to carbon credit buyers, and ruminant livestock consumers. One area of research that is still lacking, although some progress has been made, is the development of strategies for grazing cattle and particularly mature cows. The cow-calf sector represents around 70-80% of beef productions carbon footprint, yet research is not incentivized at the same level due to a variety of reasons including the difficulty and variability of that research. The objective of this presentation is to outline the past progress that the industry has made and discuss current and future roadblocks that need to be overcome. In addition, the industry’s need to remember the consumer and the landscape stewardship tradition of our producers will be discussed, as CH4 reductions alone will not ensure the sustainability of beef production.