How Much Water to Raise a Pound of Beef

Facts about h2o use and other ecology impacts of beefiness product in Canada

Yes, it takes h2o to produce beefiness, but in the 2.five million years since our ancestors started eating meat, we haven't lost a drop still.

Based on the most recent scientific discipline and extensive calculations of a wide range of factors, it is estimated that the pasture-to-plate journey of this important protein source requires well-nigh 1,910 US gallons per pound (or 15,944 litres per kilogram) of water to get Canadian beef to the dinner table. That's what is known every bit the "water footprint" of beef production.

That may audio like a lot, simply the fact is it doesn't matter what crop or beast is being produced; food production takes water. Sometimes it sounds like a lot of water, but 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 it all comes back to exist used again.

Water requirements vary with animal size and temperature. But on average, a 1250 pound (567 kg) beefiness steer only drinks about ten gallons (about 38 litres) of water per twenty-four hour period to support its normal metabolic function. That's pretty reasonable considering the average person in Canada uses near 59 gallons (223 litres) per twenty-four hour period for consumption and hygiene. And according to the virtually recent Statistics Canada data, Canada's combined household and industrial use of h2o is about 37.ix billion cubic meters annually (a cubic meter equals about 220 gallons or thou litres of water) — we humans are a water-consuming agglomeration.

Researchers at the University of Manitoba and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) Lethbridge institute that in 2011, producing each unit of Canadian beef used 17% less water than thirty years prior. ⁽ⁱ⁾ It also required 29% less breeding stock, 27% fewer harvested cattle and 24% less land, and produced 15% less greenhouse gases to produce each pound or kilogram in 2011 compared to 1981.⁽²⁾

But back to the beef industry — agriculture in general and beef producers specifically have frequently been targeted as being loftier consumers, even "wasters" of water, taking its toll on the environment. However, there's a lot more to this story – it's not every bit elementary as 1,910 gallons of water beingness used for each pound of edible beef produced.

If the beef animal itself merely needs about 10 gallons of water per day to function, what accounts for the remainder of the water (footprint) required for that 16 oz steak? Often in enquiry terms the h2o measured in the full water footprint is broken into three colour categories. The footprint includes an estimate of how much surface and ground (blue) water is used to water cattle, make fertilizer, irrigate pastures and crops, process beef, etc. And so there is a measure of how much rain (green) h2o falls on pasture and feed crops, and finally how much water is needed to dilute runoff from feed crops, pastures and cattle operations (grey h2o). Adding these bluish, green and grayness numbers for cattle produced throughout the world produces a global "water footprint" for beef. Information technology is worth noting that more than 95% of the water used in beef production is green water — it is going to rain and snowfall whether cattle are on pasture or non. And it is important to remember of all water used one way or some other it all gets recycled.

If you await at the life cycle of a beef animal from birth to burger or pasture to pot-roast, the one,910 gallons per pound is accounting for moisture needed to grow the grass it will swallow on pasture and for the hay, grain and other feeds information technology will consume as it is finished to market place weight. It also reflects the water used in the processing and packaging needed to go a whole animal assembled into retail cuts and portion sizes for the consumer. Every step of the process requires water.

Since the objective is to produce protein, couldn't nosotros just abound more pulse crops such as peas, beans, lentils and chickpeas and still meet protein requirements, use less water and benefit the environment? Permit's have a look at why that theory doesn't concord true.

Water is just function of a very large picture

First of all, whether it is an annual ingather (such every bit wheat, canola or peas) or some type of permanent or perennial forage stand (similar alfalfa or bromegrass) consumed by cattle, all crops need wet to grow. (And every bit we talk most different crops in the next few paragraphs, it is important to note there are 2 main types. Nigh field crops such as wheat, barley and peas are almanac plants. They are generally seeded in the bound, get harvested in the fall and and then die off as winter sets in. Most pasture and forage crops are permanent or perennial plants. Native or natural grass species seemingly alive forever, while tame or domestic forage species will remain productive for at least two or three years and oft for many years earlier they need to exist reseeded.)

Both annual crops and forages are important in Canadian agriculture. Only, when people wonder why we just don't produce more than establish-based protein by growing  more peas, beans and lentils, it's non just a matter of swapping out every acre of pasture to produce a field of peas. It's a thing of playing to your strengths — recognize the potential of the land for its best 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 land to abound peas. Compare that to full Canadian beef product of about 2.46 million pounds of beef produced on about 57 million acres country to grow the pasture, provender and other feed for the cattle herd, and it works out to about 78,813 gallons per acre of land 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 as much water per acre (414,652 ÷ 78,813 = v.iii) than the grass does. Much of the land used to raise forage for beef cattle doesn't receive adequate moisture or take the right soil conditions to support crop production, just information technology can produce types of grass that thrives in drier conditions.

Beefiness industry plays an important diverse function

The fact is, today's beefiness cattle were not the first bovid species to set foot on what we now consider Canadian agricultural state. For thousands and thousands of years herds of every bit many as 30 meg bison roamed across Northward America, including Canada, eating forages and depositing nutrients (manure) back into the soil and living in ecological harmony with thousands of plant and animal species.

Today, the five 1000000 head of beef cattle existence raised on Canadian farms tin can't duplicate that natural organisation, only as they are managed properly they do provide a valuable contribution to the environment just every bit the bison did.  Beef cows and the pastures they use assist to preserve Canada'south shrinking natural grassland ecosystems by providing plant and habitat biodiversity for migratory birds and endangered species, as well as habitat for a host of upland animal species. Properly managed grazing systems also do good wetland preservation, while the diversity of plants all help to capture and store carbon from the air in the soil.

Where do cattle fit?

Forages (pastures and harvested roughage) account for approximately fourscore per cent of the feed used by beef cattle in Canada. Virtually a third (31 per cent) of Canada'southward agricultural country is pasture. This country is non suited for annual crop production, just it can grow grass, which needs to be grazed by animals to remain growing and productive.

Canada'south beefiness herd is primarily located in the prairies. The southern prairies are drought-prone, and the more than northerly growing seasons are as well brusque for many crops. Fundamental and Eastern Canada generally have higher rainfall and longer growing seasons than the prairies, but not all this farmland is suitable for crop product either. Much of this country is as well boggy, stony, or bushy to permit tillage, but information technology can grow grass. Grass that cattle alive on for most of their lives.

Grass and other range and pasture plants incorporate fiber that people can't digest, but cattle take a specialized microbial population in their stomach (rumen) that allows them to assimilate fiber, make utilize of the nutrients, and convert them into high-quality protein that humans tin can digest. Beef cattle production allows united states to produce nutritious protein on land that isn't environmentally or climatically suited to cultivation and crop production.

Water cycles

But focusing on water use per pound of product ignores the water bicycle. The water cycle is important – humans, wheat, corn, lentils, poultry, pork, eggs, milk, forages and beef product all employ water,only they don't utilize information technology upward . They aren't sponges that incessantly absorb water. Almost all the water that people or cattle consume ends up back in the environment through manure, sweat, or h2o vapor.

We know that most of the water plants have up from the soil is transpired back into the air. Like city h2o, the water that beef processing facilities take out of the river at one end of the institute is treated and returns to the same river at the other end of the plant. New technologies to recycle and re-use h2o can reduce the amount of water needed for beef processing by xc per cent.

Storing greenhouse gases

Plants — pasture and hayland, all crops really — assistance 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 dorsum into the atmosphere. Because perennial plants (nearly hay and pastureland) live for many years, they develop an all-encompassing root system which will somewhen decay and become function of the soil carbon. Because these permanent or perennial pastures are not cultivated and reseeded every year, the carbon sequestered by these plants remains in the soil rather than beingness released back into the atmosphere. As a result, numerous studies have documented that grasslands, which remain good for you with grazing cattle, have more carbon stored in the soil than adjacent almanac cropland.

Pastures protect the soil

When state is cultivated to produce annual crops such every bit wheat, barley, canola, peas and lentils, the disturbance of soil releases soil carbon to the atmosphere. There is also the risk of soil erosion. In Western Canada, our predecessors learned this the hard fashion. Non knowing whatsoever improve about the impact of tillage of fields to produce crops, serious losses occurred beyond Canada —peculiarly notable on the prairies in the 'Dirty Thirties'. Tillage led to the loss of forty-fifty per cent of the organic carbon from prairie soils, and threescore-70 per cent from central 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 equally a fertilizer also replenishes organic matter in these soils.

Maintaining permanent grassland and perennial pastures drastically reduces the risk of soil loss due to air current and water erosion, and keeps stored carbon stored in the soil. The indicate is that cattle have an excellent fit on productive agricultural land not suited to annual crop product.

Soil wellness improves

Getting back to the water topic, aside from benefits noted earlier, these permanent grasslands and perennial pastures in fact help to conserve wet as roots and plant matter help to meliorate soil structure and help rain and snow melt percolate down through the soil. That'due south known as h2o infiltration. Equally a full general rule, when lands are left undisturbed, only 10 per cent of precipitation runs off the land, forty 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's not just dead roots that provide environmental benefits. Considering perennial forages aren't cultivated, and frequently abound in dry weather condition, they grow extensive root systems in their search for moisture.

An example of 1 important plant species is the legume family. In that location are varieties of legumes that make excellent pasture and hay crops. They are known equally forage legumes and about are perennial. Only at that place is another whole co-operative of the legume family that humans consume at the dinner tabular array. These legumes are known as pulse crops and that includes, peas, beans, lentils and chickpeas. Most annual pulse crops are used for human food, but even these produce by-products (e.thousand. stems, pods, shrivelled seeds, etc.) that are not edible for humans merely that cattle tin catechumen to loftier quality, nutritious protein.

What's interesting well-nigh legumes is how they benefit the soil. For case, forage legumes similar alfalfa develop roots that penetrate 53 to 63 per cent deeper into the soil than chickpeas, lentils, and other pulse crops. All legumes also have a natural power to produce an important soil nutrient known as nitrogen. All legumes can "ready" or capture nitrogen from the air and convert it into soil nitrogen that can improve soil fertility. Forage legumes tin can ready upward to twice every bit much nitrogen per acre in the soil every bit annual legume (or pulse) ingather.

Lands that are decumbent to periodic flooding or drought do good from the permanent found encompass that forages provide. The roots and vegetation go along the soil in place so that it doesn't erode, wash abroad in a flood or blow away during a drought.

Home on the range

Again, when you inquire the question, why don't we merely grow more annual crops, remember that cattle and soil aren't the merely living things afflicted when grassland is converted to farmland. Grasslands also provide habitat for pocket-sized and large mammals, hawks, nesting birds, songbirds and pollinating insects. Converting natural grassland to crop production results in considerable biodiversity loss, as the native plants, insects, birds, and wildlife that crave undisturbed natural habitats do not thrive almost as well under annual cropping systems.

Well-nigh of Canada's native grasslands have already been converted to crop production. This has led to considerable population losses in some species, with up to 87 per cent population declines amidst some grassland bird species. So maintaining grasslands and perennial pastures provides a huge ecological benefit.

Crops and cattle get well together

It is not an all or nothing scenario — crops, cattle, and grasslands need each other. For case, canola crops yield and ripen better when they are pollinated by bees. Because an entire field is seeded at the same fourth dimension, all the canola plants flower at the same fourth dimension, and each plant but flowers for two or three weeks. Grasslands provide a home for a wide range of plants that all flower at different times. That means bees have lots of plants to assistance support them during long periods when annual crops aren't flowering. Over 140 bee species are resident in Canadian grasslands; bee abundance and diversity are positively related to the presence of grasslands.

Annual crops tin also serve double duty. Canadian farmers produced about eight million tonnes of barley in 2018. A portion of that was seeded to what's known equally malting barley varieties that produce barley suitable for the brewing manufacture. If the grain doesn't meet specifications for brewing standards (for atmospheric condition-related reasons, for example), it tin can still be used as good quality livestock feed. It'southward a similar situation with the 32 one thousand thousand tonnes of wheat produced annually. If it doesn't meet milling, export or other industrial terminate-use standards, it can be used as good quality feed for cattle.

All role of a system

To echo, yeah it takes water to produce beef, but on a broader calibration, beefiness cattle are a vital role of an integrated system. Cattle demand grass, grass needs grazing to remain vital, grass protects the soil, salubrious soil helps to conserve moisture, plants provide feed and habitat for a myriad of species, grains not suitable for the human being-food market make excellent livestock feed, cattle manure provides a valuable natural fertilizer to pastures and crops, and the whole system results in production of a loftier quality, healthy protein source for humans.

All food systems rely on water, merely the most of import thing to call up is the water is not used upwardly. All water ultimately gets recycled.

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