Page 48 - The Welfare of Cattle

daIrY and beef sustaInabILItY 25

decreased by 6.5% from the practices used in 1970 to those in 2005. During this period, reactive
nitrogen losses were reduced 11%. Following the use of distiller’s grain for cattle feed in 2005, the
carbon footprint had a slight increase by 2011 and reactive nitrogen losses increased 10%. Feeding
distiller’s grain caused less-efficient protein utilization and thus greater nitrogen excretion and
greater emissions to air and water.

IMPrOVING SUStaINaBILItY

To meet the challenge of feeding the world while reducing environmental impacts and improv-
ing economic viability, progress must continue to be made in improving sustainability. There are
solutions to many of our environmental issues, but these solutions often come with some cost to
the producer and this cost may be considerable. The trade-offs between environmental, social, and
economic issues must be considered to develop more sustainable systems.
In improving the sustainability of beef and dairy products (along with all other foods), consum-
ers have a role as well. It has been estimated that about 30% of food produced is not consumed and
this includes dairy and beef products (Buzby et al., 2014). This waste has a major impact on all
metrics for measuring sustainability where a 30% loss effectively increases all measures by about
43%. It is unlikely that any other single component of the life cycle of beef and dairy products can
have this much impact on the quantification of sustainability.

reFereNCeS

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