Efficiencies in cattle production and feeding have reduced
the amount of greenhouse gas emissions from cattle, according to a study by a
team led by Tim McAllister of the federal agriculture research station at
Lethbridge.
The livestock industry has been identified as a major
contributor to greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), but the Canadian Roundtable for
Sustainable Beef (CRSB) claimed Monday that the beef industry accounts for only
3.6 per cent of Canada’s greenhouse gas production and 0.072 per cent of
global greenhouse gas production.
At the same time, lands that grow grasses and legumes for cattle
sequester carbon, thereby reducing GHGs, the Roundtable said.
McAllister’s group compared beef production in 1981 and 2011
and found that the same amount of slaughter weight was produced, with a 14 per
cent decline in methane emissions, 15 per cent decline in nitrous dioxide
emissions and a 12 per cent decline in carbon dioxide emissions from fossil
fuel use.
What it did not compare was the number of cattle in 1981 and
2011.
Enteric methane production — that is, belches and farts —
accounted for 73 per cent of total GHG emissions in both years.
