Hi Liam, this was a great Sunday morning read, with a great topic to talk and debate about. People have become so un attached to what the food they are eating.
With British farming leading in global agriculture, it is important that we must also explain why farmers farm the way they see fit for there land. From the graph you have stated in your write up I couldn’t tell if that’s just the total greenhouse gasses excreted from those animals or is that the balance left over after they have taken out carbon dioxide through the grazing techniques such as mob grazing (obviously this would be for grass fed or predominantly pasture fed), where it keeps the grass growing practically all the time, subsequent constantly sucking carbon from our atmosphere. Another great topic for this would be what genetics British farmer use, most modern British farmer know what type of system they have. By understanding what farming system you have you can choose the best genetics for there system, using our Sussex cattle for example there are a relatively small gene pool compared to the now most commonly known Angus. Some of the Sussex genetics are very old and dated (in my opinion). They are extremely slow growing taking up to 3+ years to finish and be ready for slaughter. Where as some of the more modern genetics some cattle could have grown naturally on pasture and be ready for slaughter at 15 months, this would be without constantly pumping them full of concentrate feed. Just choosing the best types of pasture for them to graze/feed. So that in itself would have a massive impact on how much methane they would produce over there lifetime. This in mind, feed lot cattle in places in the states where they are grain fed those Cattle can’t off set any of there methane because they are not out at pasture. There is so much to debate, discuss and educate with topics like this.
Hi Peter, thanks for your thoughtful and detailed comment - you make a very good point about genetics, which is something I didn’t have space for this week but I agree it is an interesting area! The efficiency of different breeds is something I am interested in exploring more.
As for the CO2 figures, from what I can see, they are gross ie. Don’t account for the sequestration effect from grassland, so it could be that emissions are even lower when you take that into account.
Hi Liam, this was a great Sunday morning read, with a great topic to talk and debate about. People have become so un attached to what the food they are eating.
With British farming leading in global agriculture, it is important that we must also explain why farmers farm the way they see fit for there land. From the graph you have stated in your write up I couldn’t tell if that’s just the total greenhouse gasses excreted from those animals or is that the balance left over after they have taken out carbon dioxide through the grazing techniques such as mob grazing (obviously this would be for grass fed or predominantly pasture fed), where it keeps the grass growing practically all the time, subsequent constantly sucking carbon from our atmosphere. Another great topic for this would be what genetics British farmer use, most modern British farmer know what type of system they have. By understanding what farming system you have you can choose the best genetics for there system, using our Sussex cattle for example there are a relatively small gene pool compared to the now most commonly known Angus. Some of the Sussex genetics are very old and dated (in my opinion). They are extremely slow growing taking up to 3+ years to finish and be ready for slaughter. Where as some of the more modern genetics some cattle could have grown naturally on pasture and be ready for slaughter at 15 months, this would be without constantly pumping them full of concentrate feed. Just choosing the best types of pasture for them to graze/feed. So that in itself would have a massive impact on how much methane they would produce over there lifetime. This in mind, feed lot cattle in places in the states where they are grain fed those Cattle can’t off set any of there methane because they are not out at pasture. There is so much to debate, discuss and educate with topics like this.
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Hi Peter, thanks for your thoughtful and detailed comment - you make a very good point about genetics, which is something I didn’t have space for this week but I agree it is an interesting area! The efficiency of different breeds is something I am interested in exploring more.
As for the CO2 figures, from what I can see, they are gross ie. Don’t account for the sequestration effect from grassland, so it could be that emissions are even lower when you take that into account.