How Many Gallos of Water Per Pound of Beef

Facts almost water use and other environmental impacts of beef production in Canada

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

Based on the virtually recent science and extensive calculations of a wide range of factors, it is estimated that the pasture-to-plate journey of this of import protein source requires nigh 1,910 US gallons per pound (or 15,944 litres per kilogram) of water to become Canadian beef to the dinner table. That'southward what is known as the "water footprint" of beefiness product.

That may audio like a lot, but the fact is it doesn't affair what crop or fauna is being produced; food production takes water. Sometimes it sounds like a lot of water, just water that is used to produce a feed crop or cattle is not lost. Water is recycled – sometimes in a very complex biological process— and information technology all comes back to exist used again.

Water requirements vary with animate being size and temperature. But on average, a 1250 pound (567 kg) beef steer only drinks nigh 10 gallons (near 38 litres) of water per mean solar day to support its normal metabolic part. That'southward pretty reasonable considering the average person in Canada uses about 59 gallons (223 litres) per twenty-four hours for consumption and hygiene. And according to the virtually recent Statistics Canada data, Canada's combined household and industrial employ of water is about 37.9 billion cubic meters annually (a cubic meter equals about 220 gallons or 1000 litres of h2o) — we humans are a water-consuming bunch.

Researchers at the University of Manitoba and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) Lethbridge establish that in 2011, producing each unit of Canadian beef used 17% less water than 30 years prior. ^(ane) It also required 29% less breeding stock, 27% fewer harvested cattle and 24% less state, and produced xv% less greenhouse gases to produce each pound or kilogram in 2011 compared to 1981.⁽²⁾

But dorsum to the beef industry — agriculture in full general and beef producers specifically accept often been targeted as being loftier consumers, even "wasters" of water, taking its toll on the environment. However, there'southward a lot more to this story – information technology'due south not as uncomplicated every bit 1,910 gallons of water being used for each pound of edible beef produced.

If the beef animal itself just needs virtually x gallons of water per day to function, what accounts for the rest of the water (footprint) required for that 16 oz steak? Often in research terms the water measured in the total water footprint is broken into three colour categories. The footprint includes an guess of how much surface and basis (blueish) water is used to water cattle, brand fertilizer, irrigate pastures and crops, process beef, etc. And and then in that location 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). Calculation these blue, green and grey numbers for cattle produced throughout the world produces a global "h2o footprint" for beef. It is worth noting that more than 95% of the h2o used in beef product is green h2o — it is going to rain and snowfall whether cattle are on pasture or not. And information technology is important to recall of all water used one way or another it all gets recycled.

If you lot look at the life cycle of a beef animal from birth to burger or pasture to pot-roast, the 1,910 gallons per pound is accounting for moisture needed to grow the grass it will consume on pasture and for the hay, grain and other feeds it volition consume equally it is finished to market weight. It besides reflects the water used in the processing and packaging needed to get a whole animal assembled into retail cuts and portion sizes for the consumer. Every step of the procedure requires h2o.

Since the objective is to produce poly peptide, couldn't we just abound more than pulse crops such equally peas, beans, lentils and chickpeas and still run across protein requirements, apply less water and benefit the environment? Allow'due south take a await at why that theory doesn't hold truthful.

Water is simply function of a very big pic

First of all, whether it is an annual crop (such every bit wheat, canola or peas) or some type of permanent or perennial forage stand up (like alfalfa or bromegrass) consumed past cattle, all crops need moisture to grow. (And every bit we talk well-nigh different crops in the side by side few paragraphs, information technology is important to annotation there are two principal types. Nigh field crops such equally wheat, barley and peas are almanac plants. They are generally seeded in the spring, get harvested in the autumn and so die off every bit winter sets in. Most pasture and provender crops are permanent or perennial plants. Native or natural grass species seemingly live forever, while tame or domestic forage species will remain productive for at least two or three years and often for many years before they need to be reseeded.)

Both annual crops and forages are important in Canadian agriculture. But, when people wonder why nosotros just don't produce more plant-based protein by growing  more peas, beans and lentils, it's not just a matter of swapping out every acre of pasture to produce a field of peas. It'south a matter of playing to your strengths — recognize the potential of the country for its all-time intended purpose.

Annual pulse crops (like peas, beans and lentils) use more h2o than grass. For dry pea production, for example, it takes about 414,562 gallons of water per acre of country to grow peas. Compare that to total Canadian beef product of about two.46 million pounds of beefiness produced on about 57 1000000 acres state to grow the pasture, forage and other feed for the cattle herd, and information technology works out to most 78,813 gallons per acre of country used for beef production.

This means that not every acre beef cattle are raised on is suited to crop production . Dry peas need more than than five times every bit much h2o 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 moisture or have the right soil conditions to support crop production, but information technology can produce types of grass that thrives in drier atmospheric condition.

Beef manufacture plays an important diverse role

The fact is, today'due south beef cattle were non the first bovid species to set foot on what we now consider Canadian agronomical land. For thousands and thousands of years herds of as 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 constitute and animal species.

Today, the 5 million head of beef cattle being raised on Canadian farms tin't duplicate that natural system, but equally they are managed properly they exercise provide a valuable contribution to the surround simply equally the bison did.  Beef cows and the pastures they apply help to preserve Canada's shrinking natural grassland ecosystems by providing plant and habitat biodiversity for migratory birds and endangered species, equally well as habitat for a host of upland animal species. Properly managed grazing systems besides do good wetland preservation, while the diversity of plants all help to capture and shop carbon from the air in the soil.

Where do cattle fit?

Forages (pastures and harvested roughage) account for approximately 80 per cent of the feed used by beef cattle in Canada. Near a 3rd (31 per cent) of Canada's agricultural country is pasture. This land is non suited for annual crop product, simply it tin abound grass, which needs to be grazed by animals to remain growing and productive.

Canada's beef herd is primarily located in the prairies. The southern prairies are drought-prone, and the more than northerly growing seasons are too curt for many crops. Central and Eastern Canada generally have higher rainfall and longer growing seasons than the prairies, but non all this farmland is suitable for crop production either. Much of this land is too boggy, stony, or bushy to permit cultivation, but it can grow grass. Grass that cattle live on for most of their lives.

Grass and other range and pasture plants comprise fiber that people can't assimilate, but cattle accept a specialized microbial population in their stomach (rumen) that allows them to digest cobweb, make use of the nutrients, and catechumen them into high-quality poly peptide that humans can assimilate. Beefiness cattle production allows us to produce nutritious protein on land that isn't environmentally or climatically suited to cultivation and crop production.

Water cycles

Only focusing on h2o use per pound of product ignores the water bike. The water cycle is important – humans, wheat, corn, lentils, poultry, pork, eggs, milk, forages and beefiness production all utilise water,but they don't use it up . They aren't sponges that endlessly absorb water. Near all the water that people or cattle consume ends upwards dorsum in the environment through manure, sweat, or h2o vapor.

We know that well-nigh of the water plants have up from the soil is transpired back into the air. Like urban center water, the water that beef processing facilities take out of the river at one end of the plant is treated and returns to the same river at the other end of the plant. New technologies to recycle and re-use water can reduce the amount of water needed for beefiness processing past ninety per cent.

Storing greenhouse gases

Plants — pasture and hayland, all crops really — aid to capture and store carbon. Plants take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, incorporate the carbon into their roots, stems, leaves, flowers and seeds, and release oxygen back into the atmosphere. Because perennial plants (nearly hay and pastureland) live for many years, they develop an extensive root organisation which will eventually decay and become part of the soil carbon. Considering these permanent or perennial pastures are non cultivated and reseeded every year, the carbon sequestered past these plants remains in the soil rather than being released back into the atmosphere. As a result, numerous studies accept documented that grasslands, which remain healthy with grazing cattle, have more than carbon stored in the soil than adjacent annual cropland.

Pastures protect the soil

When land is cultivated to produce annual crops such as wheat, barley, canola, peas and lentils, the disturbance of soil releases soil carbon to the atmosphere. There is besides the run a risk of soil erosion. In Western Canada, our predecessors learned this the hard fashion. Non knowing any better about the impact of cultivation of fields to produce crops, serious losses occurred across Canada —especially notable on the prairies in the 'Dirty Thirties'. Tillage led to the loss of 40-50 per cent of the organic carbon from prairie soils, and 60-70 per cent from key and eastern Canadian soils. But we learned from those mistakes and today, most annual crops are grown under reduced or no-till cropping systems — crops are seeded with minimal soil disturbance. Unlike 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 betoken is that cattle have an excellent fit on productive agricultural land not suited to annual ingather production.

Soil wellness improves

Getting dorsum to the water topic, aside from benefits noted earlier, these permanent grasslands and perennial pastures in fact help to conserve moisture equally roots and found matter assist to improve soil structure and assistance pelting and snow melt percolate down through the soil. That's known as water infiltration. As a general dominion, when lands are left undisturbed, only 10 per cent of precipitation runs off the country, 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'due south not but dead roots that provide ecology benefits. Because perennial forages aren't cultivated, and often grow in dry out weather, they grow extensive root systems in their search for moisture.

An example of one important plant species is the legume family. There are varieties of legumes that make first-class pasture and hay crops. They are known equally provender legumes and most are perennial. But there is another whole branch of the legume family that humans swallow at the dinner table. These legumes are known as pulse crops and that includes, peas, beans, lentils and chickpeas. Most almanac pulse crops are used for man nutrient, merely even these produce past-products (due east.thou. 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 do good the soil. For example, provender legumes like alfalfa develop roots that penetrate 53 to 63 per cent deeper into the soil than chickpeas, lentils, and other pulse crops. All legumes also accept a natural power to produce an important soil food known as nitrogen. All legumes tin can "fix" or capture nitrogen from the air and catechumen it into soil nitrogen that tin can meliorate soil fertility. Forage legumes can fix upwardly to twice as much nitrogen per acre in the soil as almanac legume (or pulse) ingather.

Lands that are prone to periodic flooding or drought do good from the permanent establish cover that forages provide. The roots and vegetation keep the soil in identify so that information technology doesn't erode, launder abroad in a flood or blow away during a drought.

Habitation on the range

Once again, when you inquire the question, why don't we just abound more almanac crops, remember that cattle and soil aren't the only living things affected when grassland is converted to farmland. Grasslands also provide habitat for pocket-size and large mammals, hawks, nesting birds, songbirds and pollinating insects. Converting natural grassland to crop production results in considerable biodiversity loss, every bit the native plants, insects, birds, and wild fauna that require undisturbed natural habitats do not thrive nearly also nether annual cropping systems.

Most of Canada'south native grasslands take already been converted to crop production. 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 get well together

Information technology is not an all or nothing scenario — crops, cattle, and grasslands need each other. For example, canola crops yield and ripen meliorate when they are pollinated by bees. Because an unabridged field is seeded at the same time, all the canola plants flower at the aforementioned time, and each plant only flowers for two or 3 weeks. Grasslands provide a home for a wide range of plants that all bloom at different times. That means bees accept lots of plants to help support them during long periods when annual crops aren't flowering. Over 140 bee species are resident in Canadian grasslands; bee abundance and diverseness are positively related to the presence of grasslands.

Annual crops tin also serve double duty. Canadian farmers produced about viii meg 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 encounter specifications for brewing standards (for weather-related reasons, for instance), it can withal exist used equally good quality livestock feed. Information technology's a similar situation with the 32 million tonnes of wheat produced annually. If it doesn't run across milling, export or other industrial end-use standards, it tin be used as expert quality feed for cattle.

All office of a system

To repeat, yes information technology takes water to produce beef, but on a broader calibration, beefiness cattle are a vital role of an integrated system. Cattle need grass, grass needs grazing to remain vital, grass protects the soil, healthy soil helps to conserve moisture, plants provide feed and habitat for a myriad of species, grains not suitable for the homo-food market make excellent livestock feed, cattle manure provides a valuable natural fertilizer to pastures and crops, and the whole organization results in product of a high quality, healthy poly peptide source for humans.

All nutrient systems rely on water, simply the most important thing to remember is the water is not used up. All water ultimately gets recycled.

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