Understanding the overall sustainability of beef production is important for making continuous improvement allowing documentation of improvement over time. A couple of recent studies estimated the overall sustainability metrics of beef production in the US (Rotz et al., 2019) and Canada (Aboagye et al., 2024). In both countries, methane emissions were the primary greenhouse gas emitted, with the cow-calf sector accounting for more than 50% of the total. The primary use of fossil fuel energy was feed production in both countries. Additionally, the primary use of blue water was feed production in both countries. Blue water is surface or ground water used for irrigation, cattle drinking, and cleaning of facilities and equipment: it does not include green (rain) water that falls on crop fields and pasture.
Even though beef production in the US and Canada may seem relatively similar, there are subtle differences. For example, growing cattle in Canada may spend fewer days on pasture consuming high roughage diets leading to lower methane emissions. Feed production in the US uses more fertilizer per acre of arable land leading to greater fossil energy use. And the US uses more freshwater for agriculture production than Canada. The difference between the US and Canada in climate conditions is the primary driver in the differences in overall sustainability metrics.
