Carbon footprint in different beef production systems on a southern Brazilian farm: a case study

Abstract

a b s t r a c tThe carbon footprint (CF) of beef production is one of the most widely discussed environmental issues within the current agricultural community due to its association with climate change. Because of these relevant and serious concerns, the beef cattle industry is under increasing pressure to reduce production or implement technological changes with significant consequences in terms of beef marketing. The goals of this study were to evaluate the CF per 1 kg of live weight gain (LWG) at the farm gate for different beef production systems in the southern part of Brazil. Aberdeen Angus beef-bred cattle were assigned to one of seven categories: natural grass; improved natural grass; natural grass plus ryegrass; improved natural grass plus sorghum; cultivated ryegrass and sorghum; natural grass supplemented with protein mineralised salt; and natural grass supplemented with protein-energetic mineralised salt. Monte Carlo analysis was employed to analyse the effect of variations of dry matter intake digestibility (DMID), total digestible nutrients (TDN) and crude protein (CP) parameters in methane (CH 4 ) enteric, CH 4 manure, nitrous oxide (N 2 O) manure and N 2 O N-fertiliser. The method used was a comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) centred on the CF. The CF varied from 18.3 kg CO 2 equivalent/kg LWG for the ryegrass and sorghum pasture system to 42.6 kg CO 2 equivalent/kg LWG for the natural grass system, including the contributions of cows, calves and steers. Among all grassland-based cattle farms, production systems with DMID from 52 to 59% achieved the lowest CO 2 emissions and the highest feed conversion rate, thereby generating lower CH 4 and N 2 O emissions per production system. Because the feed intake and feed conversion rate are one of the most important production parameters in beef cattle production with an obvious risk of data uncertainty, accurate feed data, which include quantity and quality, are important in estimates of CF for LWG. The choice of adequate feeding strategies to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions may result in better environmental advantages.

Land use change and ecosystem service provision in Pampas and Campos grasslands of southern South America

“…The carbon footprint of beef cattle farms on native grassland ranged from 17.5 kg CO 2 eq kg −1 LW gain (Picasso et al 2014) to 46.5 kg CO 2 eq kg −1 LW gain (Ruviaro et al 2014). Mitigation strategies in Northern Campos have been proposed through intensification of production, mainly by increasing forage production and feed quality (Ruviaro et al 2014, Dick et al 2015. These authors propose intensification pathways based on external inputs, resulting in improvement of livestock reproduction (weaning rate) and growth (average daily gain).…”

“…These authors propose intensification pathways based on external inputs, resulting in improvement of livestock reproduction (weaning rate) and growth (average daily gain). Ruviaro et al (2014) Land use change from native grasslands to crops changed regional hydrology, reducing the lake areas in the Flooding pampas (Booman et al 2012). Afforestation in the Flooding pampas resulted in increased water uptake, reducing groundwater levels by about 0.5 m (Engel et al 2005).…”

Economic and environmental feasibility of beef production in different feed management systems in the Pampa biome, southern Brazil

“…Through estimates, it is argued that beef production is responsible for more than half of GHG emissions of the national agricultural sector (Ruviaro et al, 2014a). Besides, the Brazilian beef cattle industry can become one of the key sources of GHG mitigation and improve the Brazilian economy.…”

“…Brazilian beef industry has suffered pressure from national and international agencies concerned with global warming, through estimates that beef production is responsible for more than half of the national agricultural sector GHG emissions (Ruviaro et al, 2014a;Gianezini et al, 2014;Ruviaro et al, 2014b). According to Beauchemin et al (2008), among greenhouse gases, the most important is methane (CH 4 ).…”

Proposal for a LCA improvement roadmap in the Agri-food sector based on information exchange requirements and the enclosed data in recent LCAs works

“…Agricultural production and the food processing industry generate significant environmental impacts which contribute to global warming, eutrophication and acidification (Pardo & Zufia, 2012;Ruviaro et al, 2014;Saarinen et al, 2012). Over the last decade, the LCA has been increasingly used for the qualification and quantification of these impacts, and also to meet the demand for optimization of food production (Notarnicola et al, 2012a).…”