Beef- Improve animal management

Improve Animal Management

System: Beef Cattle

Mainly applicable for: Farms with poor technical results and poor sanitary conditions. More potential on suckler farms with reproduction than in fattening farms.

Description

Improving the health and growth rate of fattening animals, and health and reproduction of the breeding stock, by improving animal feeding, health management (incl. veterinary services), reproductive management, and genetic selection. The improvements in animal management will reduce mortality and morbidity rates, improve growth rate, and improve reproductive performance and longevity of the breeding stock. The optimum age at slaughter for greenhouse gas emission reduction depends on the breed and farm management situation.

Mechanism of effect

Improving health and growth rate, reducing mortality, and optimizing reproductive performance can reduce greenhouse gas emissions per kg meat by avoiding wasting resources and improving production efficiency. Healthier animals show higher growth rates, better fertility and less mortality, leading to more efficient use of resources and lower GHG emissions per kg of meat produced. None-productive animals, such as the breeding overhead and animal that died, contribute to the total emissions from the system through emissions from enteric fermentation, manure, housing, and production of consumed feed resources. Therefore, reducing mortality and improving reproductive performance reduce emissions per kg meat produced, due to less breeding overhead and resource use per finished fattening animal. Earlier slaughter reduces emissions per kg meat due to a shorter lifetime (fewer days emitting) and a better feed conversion rate in earlier growth stages.

Reference situation

Average farm

Legend

● – Small effect (<5%)	o – No effect
●● – Medium effect (5-20%)	● – Unfavourable effect
●●● – Large effect (>20%)	● – ● – Variable effect (depending on farm characteristics or way/level of implementation)

Effect on total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions

Mean effect and range in kg CO2-equivalents	per kg product
	Mean	Mean	Level of evidence
Reduce mortality	●●	●	Medium
Reduce slaughter age	●●	●	Medium
Reduce calving interval (breeding cow)	●●	●●	Medium
Optimize age at first calving (breeding cow)	●●	●●	Low

Effect per emission source

Mean effect on emission from	Manure		Animal	Feed and forage production			Barn & farm inputs
	CH₄	N₂O	CH₄	CO₂	N₂O	LUC	CO₂
Reduce mortality	●	●	●	●	●	N/A	●
Reduce slaughter age	●●	●●	●●	●	●	N/A	●
Reduce calving interval (breeding cow)	●	●	●	●	●	N/A	●
Optimize age at first calving (breeding cow)	●●	●●	●●	●●	●●	N/A	●

*risk of an adverse effect (see ’cause of variable or unfavourable effect’)

Explanation of variable effect

Reduce mortality

The effect depends on the extend of reduction, hence the mortality rate in the old and new situation.

Reduce slaughter age

The effect depends on the extend of reduction in age of slaughter, and the way it is realized. For example, if realized through changes in the feed ration, the effect depends on the carbon footprint of the feed ration in the old and new situation.

Reduce calving interval (breeding cow)

The effect depends on the extend of reduction in calving interval, and the way it is realized. For example, if realized through changes in the feed ration, the effect depends on the carbon footprint of the feed ration in the old and new situation.

Optimize age at first calving (breeding cow)

The effect depends on the extend of reduction in age at first calving, and the way it is realized. For example, if realized through changes in the feed ration, the effect depends on the carbon footprint of the feed ration in the old and new situation.

*Literature references*	Reduce mortality
O’Brien et al., 2020	LIFE BEEF CARBON: a common framework for quantifying grass and corn based beef farms’ carbon footprints
Samsonstuen et al., 2020	Mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions from beef cattle production systems
Quinton et al., 2018	Prediction of effects of beef selection indexes on greenhouse gas emissions

	Reduce slaughter age
Samsonstuen et al., 2020	Mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions from beef cattle production systems
Sabia et al., 2024	Effect of slaughter age on environmental efficiency on beef cattle in marginal area including soil carbon sequestration: A case of study in Italian Alpine area
Murphy et al., 2017	An economic and greenhouse gas emissions evaluation of pasture-based dairy calf-to-beef production systems

	Optimize calving interval (breeding cow)
O’Brien et al., 2020	LIFE BEEF CARBON: a common framework for quantifying grass and corn based beef farms’ carbon footprints
Samsonstuen et al., 2020	Mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions from beef cattle production systems
Quinton et al., 2018	Prediction of effects of beef selection indexes on greenhouse gas emissions

	Optimize age at first calving (breeding cow)
O’Brien et al., 2020	LIFE BEEF CARBON: a common framework for quantifying grass and corn based beef farms’ carbon footprints
Nguyen et al., 2013	Effect of farming practices for greenhouse gas mitigation and subsequent alternative land use on environmental impacts of beef cattle production systems
Abreu et al., 2022	Effect of reduced age at first calving and an increased weaning rate on CO2 equivalent emissions in a cow-calf system