The Atmosphere

Greenhouse gas emissions are believed to contribute to climate change. Cattle production both contributes and removes greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.

Agriculture and Greenhouse Gases
It's been estimated that agricultural emissions account for just 8.4 per cent of total greenhouse gas emissions in Canada. Of that 8.4 per cent, a total of 51 per cent of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions are nitrous oxide resulting from crop production and fertilizer application. The other 49 per cent is mostly methane emissions resulting from the digestive processes of livestock and manure management.

Cattle and Methane
Cattle and other ruminant (four-stomached) animals have a unique ability to digest plant materials, such as grass and straw, which have high contents of cellulose. This plant material is digested by the micro-organisms such as bacteria, protozoa and fungi that are found in the rumen. The anaerobic (without oxygen) digestion by the micro-organisms, also known as enteric fermentation, results in the production of methane which the animal belches back into the atmosphere.

Feeds high in fibre, such as straw, result in the production of more methane than forages of low fibre content, such as fresh green grass. The addition of grain to the feed also lowers methane production by cattle. During the short stage of their lives that beef cattle spend in a feedlot, they actually produce less methane than when they're on pasture, because of the grain in their feed rations in the feedlot.

But Cattle Production Removes Greenhouse Gases Too
Another greenhouse gas is carbon dioxide. Agriculture doesn't produce much carbon dioxide - the biggest contributors to carbon dioxide production in Canada are transportation, electricity and heat production. Rangelands and tame pastures remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. In fact grasslands are capable of storing about twice the carbon as woodlands.

Carbon sequestration is the result of plants taking carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and using it for plant growth. Most of the carbon is stored below ground in the roots of plants. On grasslands the soil is usually left undisturbed, and so the carbon remains sequestered from the atmosphere.

Reducing Emissions and Increasing Removal
A great deal of research has gone into finding ways to reduce methane emissions from cattle and increase carbon storage in grasslands. For example, it's known that methane emissions are reduced when the plants cattle eat are of higher quality, and that healthy grasslands store more carbon. Cattle producers are learning that improving the quality of their pasture benefits not only their livestock, it benefits the atmosphere too. It's a win-win situation for farmers and ranchers and for the environment.

The cattle industry participated in the Government of Canada's Climate Change Action Fund, through the Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Program for Agriculture. Numerous projects and activities researched ways to reduce greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and introduced cattle producers to methods for increasing productivity while reducing greenhouse gases.