Measurement of Resources Used to Produce a Pound of Beef

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

Yes, it takes water to produce beef, only in the 2.5 1000000 years since our ancestors started eating meat, nosotros haven't lost a drop yet.

Based on the near recent science and extensive calculations of a wide range of factors, it is estimated that the pasture-to-plate journey of this of import poly peptide source requires about 1,910 US gallons per pound (or xv,944 litres per kilogram) of water to get Canadian beef to the dinner table. That's what is known every bit the "water footprint" of beef production.

That may sound like a lot, but the fact is it doesn't matter what crop or animal is being produced; nutrient production takes water. Sometimes it sounds like a lot of h2o, simply water that is used to produce a feed ingather or cattle is not lost. H2o is recycled – sometimes in a very complex biological procedure— and it all comes dorsum to be used once again.

Water requirements vary with creature size and temperature. But on average, a 1250 pound (567 kg) beefiness steer only drinks near 10 gallons (virtually 38 litres) of water per solar day to support its normal metabolic function. That'south pretty reasonable because the boilerplate person in Canada uses most 59 gallons (223 litres) per day for consumption and hygiene. And according to the near contempo Statistics Canada information, Canada'southward combined household and industrial apply of h2o is about 37.nine billion cubic meters annually (a cubic meter equals about 220 gallons or thou litres of water) — we humans are a water-consuming bunch.

Researchers at the Academy 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 water than thirty years prior. ⁽¹⁾ Information technology also required 29% less breeding stock, 27% fewer harvested cattle and 24% less land, and produced xv% less greenhouse gases to produce each pound or kilogram in 2011 compared to 1981.⁽ⁱⁱ⁾

But back to the beef industry — agriculture in general and beef producers specifically accept oftentimes been targeted equally being high consumers, even "wasters" of water, taking its toll on the environment. However, there'southward a lot more to this story – information technology'southward not as simple as 1,910 gallons of water being used for each pound of edible beef produced.

If the beef animal itself only needs about 10 gallons of water per 24-hour interval 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 cleaved into three colour categories. The footprint includes an guess of how much surface and footing (bluish) water is used to water cattle, brand fertilizer, irrigate pastures and crops, process beefiness, etc. So there is a measure 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 (grey water). Adding these blueish, green and grey numbers for cattle produced throughout the world produces a global "water footprint" for beef. It is worth noting that more than than 95% of the h2o used in beef production is light-green water — it is going to rain and snow whether cattle are on pasture or not. And it is important to remember of all water used one way or another it all gets recycled.

If you look at the life cycle of a beef animal from nascency to burger or pasture to pot-roast, the one,910 gallons per pound is accounting for moisture needed to abound the grass it will eat on pasture and for the hay, grain and other feeds information technology will consume equally it is finished to marketplace weight. It as well reflects the h2o used in the processing and packaging needed to become a whole creature assembled into retail cuts and portion sizes for the consumer. Every step of the process requires water.

Since the objective is to produce poly peptide, couldn't nosotros just grow more pulse crops such as peas, beans, lentils and chickpeas and still run into protein requirements, use less h2o and benefit the environment? Let'southward take a look at why that theory doesn't agree true.

H2o is just part of a very big flick

First of all, whether it is an annual crop (such as wheat, canola or peas) or some type of permanent or perennial forage stand (like alfalfa or bromegrass) consumed by cattle, all crops demand moisture to grow. (And equally nosotros talk about dissimilar crops in the next few paragraphs, information technology is important to note in that location are 2 main types. Most field crops such equally wheat, barley and peas are annual plants. They are generally seeded in the spring, get harvested in the fall and then die off as winter sets in. Nigh pasture and fodder crops are permanent or perennial plants. Native or natural grass species seemingly live forever, while tame or domestic provender species will remain productive for at to the lowest degree two or iii years and often for many years before they demand to be reseeded.)

Both annual crops and forages are of import in Canadian agriculture. Only, when people wonder why nosotros merely don't produce more plant-based poly peptide by growing  more peas, beans and lentils, it's not only a affair of swapping out every acre of pasture to produce a field of peas. It'due south a affair of playing to your strengths — recognize the potential of the land for its best intended purpose.

Annual pulse crops (like peas, beans and lentils) use more than water than grass. For dry pea production, for example, it takes well-nigh 414,562 gallons of water per acre of land to grow peas. Compare that to total Canadian beef production of almost ii.46 million pounds of beefiness produced on about 57 million acres land to abound the pasture, forage and other feed for the cattle herd, and it works out to virtually 78,813 gallons per acre of land used for beef production.

This means that not every acre beef cattle are raised on is suited to crop product . Dry peas need more than than 5 times as much water per acre (414,652 ÷ 78,813 = 5.3) than the grass does. Much of the land used to raise fodder for beef cattle doesn't receive adequate wet or accept the right soil conditions to back up crop production, but information technology can produce types of grass that thrives in drier conditions.

Beef industry plays an of import diverse role

The fact is, today'due south beef cattle were non the first bovid species to fix foot on what we at present consider Canadian agricultural land. For thousands and thousands of years herds of equally many as 30 million bison roamed across North America, including Canada, eating forages and depositing nutrients (manure) dorsum into the soil and living in ecological harmony with thousands of plant and animate being species.

Today, the 5 one thousand thousand head of beef cattle being raised on Canadian farms can't duplicate that natural system, simply equally they are managed properly they practise provide a valuable contribution to the environment just equally the bison did.  Beef cows and the pastures they use help to preserve Canada's shrinking natural grassland ecosystems by providing plant and habitat biodiversity for migratory birds and endangered species, too equally habitat for a host of upland fauna species. Properly managed grazing systems also benefit wetland preservation, while the diversity of plants all help to capture and store carbon from the air in the soil.

Where do cattle fit?

Forages (pastures and harvested roughage) account for approximately fourscore per cent of the feed used past beef cattle in Canada. Nearly a third (31 per cent) of Canada's agronomical land is pasture. This land is not suited for annual crop product, merely it tin can grow grass, which needs to be grazed by animals to remain growing and productive.

Canada'southward beef herd is primarily located in the prairies. The southern prairies are drought-prone, and the more northerly growing seasons are besides curt for many crops. Primal and Eastern Canada more often than not have college rainfall and longer growing seasons than the prairies, but not all this farmland is suitable for crop production either. Much of this state is too boggy, stony, or bushy to allow cultivation, but it 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, only cattle have a specialized microbial population in their stomach (rumen) that allows them to digest fiber, make use of the nutrients, and convert them into loftier-quality poly peptide that humans can digest. Beefiness cattle production allows us to produce nutritious poly peptide on state that isn't environmentally or climatically suited to cultivation and ingather product.

H2o cycles

Simply focusing on water use per pound of product ignores the water cycle. The water bike is important – humans, wheat, corn, lentils, poultry, pork, eggs, milk, forages and beefiness production all apply water,simply they don't use it up . They aren't sponges that endlessly blot water. Nearly all the water that people or cattle swallow ends up back in the environment through manure, sweat, or h2o vapor.

We know that most of the water plants accept up from the soil is transpired back into the air. Similar metropolis water, the water that beef processing facilities take out of the river at 1 end of the plant is treated and returns to the aforementioned river at the other cease of the plant. New technologies to recycle and re-utilise h2o tin can reduce the amount of water needed for beef processing by 90 per cent.

Storing greenhouse gases

Plants — pasture and hayland, all crops really — help to capture and store carbon. Plants have carbon dioxide out of the temper, incorporate the carbon into their roots, stems, leaves, flowers and seeds, and release oxygen back into the temper. Because perennial plants (most hay and pastureland) live for many years, they develop an extensive root arrangement which will eventually decay and become 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 upshot, numerous studies accept documented that grasslands, which remain healthy with grazing cattle, have more carbon stored in the soil than next annual cropland.

Pastures protect the soil

When state is cultivated to produce annual crops such equally wheat, barley, canola, peas and lentils, the disturbance of soil releases soil carbon to the atmosphere. At that place is also the risk of soil erosion. In Western Canada, our predecessors learned this the hard way. Not knowing whatsoever meliorate virtually the impact of tillage of fields to produce crops, serious losses occurred beyond Canada —particularly notable on the prairies in the 'Dirty Thirties'. Cultivation led to the loss of twoscore-50 per cent of the organic carbon from prairie soils, and threescore-70 per cent from central and eastern Canadian soils. But nosotros learned from those mistakes and today, most annual crops are grown nether reduced or no-till cropping systems — crops are seeded with minimal soil disturbance. Dissimilar commercial fertilizers, using manure as a fertilizer also replenishes organic matter in these soils.

Maintaining permanent grassland and perennial pastures drastically reduces the risk of soil loss due to wind and water erosion, and keeps stored carbon stored in the soil. The signal is that cattle have an fantabulous fit on productive agronomical state not suited to annual crop production.

Soil health improves

Getting back to the h2o topic, aside from benefits noted before, these permanent grasslands and perennial pastures in fact help to conserve moisture every bit roots and plant affair help to improve soil structure and help pelting and snow melt percolate downwards through the soil. That's known as water infiltration. As a general rule, when lands are left undisturbed, simply 10 per cent of precipitation runs off the state, 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, h2o infiltration is reduced.

It's not just dead roots that provide ecology benefits. Because perennial forages aren't cultivated, and often grow in dry conditions, they abound extensive root systems in their search for moisture.

An example of i of import plant species is the legume family. There are varieties of legumes that make fantabulous pasture and hay crops. They are known as provender legumes and about are perennial. But there is another whole branch of the legume family unit that humans eat at the dinner tabular array. These legumes are known as pulse crops and that includes, peas, beans, lentils and chickpeas. Most almanac pulse crops are used for human food, just even these produce by-products (due east.g. stems, pods, shrivelled seeds, etc.) that are not edible for humans but that cattle can convert to high quality, nutritious protein.

What'due south 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 also have a natural ability to produce an important soil food known as nitrogen. All legumes can "fix" or capture nitrogen from the air and convert information technology into soil nitrogen that tin can improve soil fertility. Fodder legumes can set up upwards to twice as much nitrogen per acre in the soil as annual legume (or pulse) ingather.

Lands that are prone to periodic flooding or drought benefit from the permanent institute embrace that forages provide. The roots and vegetation go on the soil in identify and so that it doesn't erode, wash away in a overflowing or blow away during a drought.

Home on the range

Once more, when you enquire the question, why don't nosotros just grow more annual crops, remember that cattle and soil aren't the only living things affected when grassland is converted to farmland. Grasslands also provide habitat for small and big mammals, hawks, nesting birds, songbirds and pollinating insects. Converting natural grassland to ingather product results in considerable biodiversity loss, as the native plants, insects, birds, and wildlife that require undisturbed natural habitats do non thrive virtually likewise under almanac cropping systems.

Most of Canada'southward native grasslands take already been converted to crop 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 become well together

Information technology is not an all or nil scenario — crops, cattle, and grasslands need each other. For example, canola crops yield and ripen better when they are pollinated by bees. Because an entire field is seeded at the same time, all the canola plants flower at the same time, and each plant only flowers for two or iii weeks. Grasslands provide a home for a wide range of plants that all flower at different times. That means bees have lots of plants to assistance support them during long periods when annual crops aren't flowering. Over 140 bee species are resident in Canadian grasslands; bee affluence and diversity are positively related to the presence of grasslands.

Annual crops can also serve double duty. Canadian farmers produced about eight million tonnes of barley in 2018. A portion of that was seeded to what's known as malting barley varieties that produce barley suitable for the brewing manufacture. If the grain doesn't meet specifications for brewing standards (for atmospheric condition-related reasons, for example), it tin can still be used as good quality livestock feed. It's a similar state of affairs with the 32 million tonnes of wheat produced annually. If information technology doesn't meet milling, export or other industrial end-use standards, it can be used every bit good quality feed for cattle.

All part of a system

To repeat, yes it takes water to produce beef, 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, healthy soil helps to conserve wet, plants provide feed and habitat for a myriad of species, grains not suitable for the homo-nutrient market make 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 food systems rely on water, but the well-nigh important thing to think is the h2o is not used up. All water ultimately gets recycled.

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