Way’s Livestock Affect
Environmental Quality
• Excess manure nutrients
– Fecal Nutrients
• N and N-containing components
• P
• Trace minerals
– Urinary nutrients
• N
– May have direct or indirect effects on environmental quality
• NH3 causes respiratory problems
• H2S is a toxic gas
• N and P causes algae blooms that depletes water O2
concentrations causing fish kills
• Fermentation gases
– CH4 and CO2 are Green House Gases associated with global
warming
• Dust
– From animal skin, hair, feed and bare soil
• Pathogens
– May be direct from manure deposition and runoff
or endotoxins in air within confinement buildings
– May be indirect from N and P
• Endocrine disrupters
• Animal Mortalities
– Contributes N, P, gases, pathogens, and bad
aesthetic quality
• Pasture erosion
– From upland and riparian areas
• Loss of biodiversity
– Directly from selective grazing
– Indirectly from nutrient imbalance
• All effects are manageable with good
management
Use of Nutrient Balance to Control Environmental
Problems Associated with Livestock
Problems with Managing Livestock for
Environmental Quality
• Structure of agriculture
• Regulations are rapidly
changing
• Lack of meaningful
measurements of
performance
• Inadequate technologies
• Solving one
environmental problem
can cause other problems
• Controlling environmental
quality requires more and
different management
• Economic costs
INTEGRATED BEEF AND CROP PRODUCTION IN A
BIOFUEL ERA
Ethanol &
Biodiesel
Nutrients
Coproducts
Nutrients
Energy
Products
Crops
Livestock
Manure
Nutrient and energy losses
Environmental damage
Regional border
Problems with Managing Livestock for
Environmental Quality
• Structure of agriculture
• Regulations are rapidly
changing
• Lack of meaningful
measurements of
performance
• Inadequate technologies
• Solving one
environmental problem
can cause other problems
• Controlling environmental
quality requires more and
different management
• Economic costs
•
•
•
•
•
Why Manage Livestock for Environmental
Quality?
To meet governmental regulations
To meet specifications set by food retailers
or niche market programs
Reduce offsite costs of environmental
damage
To avoid conflicts with neighbors and
community
Can be a win-win situation
– Balancing diets will reduce feed costs
– Proper manure application will reduce fertilizer
costs
– Improved grazing management will increase
production while improving pasture stream water
quality
– Marketing advantage
Problems with Managing Livestock for
Environmental Quality
• Confounding of environmental goals with
social, economic, animal welfare or aesthetic
goals
• Problems of denial by some producers and
groups in livestock production
– Arguments that are not positive inhibit progress and
increases conflicts
– Need to consider the perspectives of consumers
• Regulations are rapidly changing
– More is learned about the relationship between
environmental health and human health
– General public in U.S. and other countries are calling
for more environmental protection
– Conflicting and emerging science on the effects of
livestock on the environment
• Measurement of nonpoint source pollution is
difficult and often inaccurate.
– Atmospheric NH3 is measured on an air-shed basis
– Sediment and P entering pasture streams primarily
occurs during storm events and is confounded by
upstream management practices
– Manure odor is composed by as many as 300
odors
• Solving one environmental problem can lead
to another
– Injection of manure into the soil reduces NH3
volatilization, odors and P loss, but may increased
dissolved NO3 and P in ground water
– Increasing N fertilization increases forage
production, but decreases biodiversity
– Implications:
• Must think holistically
• To limit nutrient excretion, diets must be
accurately blended to meet animal
requirements, but:
– Exact nutrient requirements for many species at
different sizes and sexes are not accurately
known
• Most nutrient requirements have been set with safety
margins above the physiological functions
Production
Production/animal
Excretion
Nutrient consumed
• Diets balanced for environmental management may have
some risk for reduced performance, but don’t
necessarily have to
• Common feedstuffs contain imbalances of
various nutrients
– Grains contain high concentrations of P
– Legume forage contain high concentrations of
protein that is highly degradable in the rumen of
cattle
• Rapid measurement of many feed
microingredients are difficult, expensive, or
nonexistent
• Composition of manure is variable
– Crop producers prefer using fertilizer nutrients
• Controlling environmental quality requires more
management
– It’s easier to feed a single group of animals than
groups of animals separated by sex and size
– It’s easier taking a trace mineral block out to a
cowherd than to calculate whether they need it
– Its easier just applying fertilizer than analyzing and
calibrating manure application
• Structure of Agriculture
– 50% of the corn produced in NE leaves the state
– Farms that produce more manure than can be safely
applied at the agronomic rate account for:
• 60% of the nation’s manure N
• 70% of the nation’s manure P
• Measure to manage livestock to maintain
environmental quality will have an economic
cost
– If the number of animals per acre are limited,
operations may be too small to be economically
viable
– Measures like diet manipulation or improved manure
handling, storage and application will likely have
economic costs
– Who pays?
• Government
• Consumers
• Producers