Posts Tagged: dairy

Efficient U.S. livestock production leaves smaller carbon hoofprint

Dear Colleagues,

The University of California and VOX Media have been producing a video series this past year that explores issues related to global climate change and UC's work to mitigate its effects. Previous episodes have examined food waste, nuclear power, goods movement and more. Episode 8, “The diet that helps fight climate change,” compares the greenhouse gas emissions of livestock and transportation globally, using some statistics that have been questioned by our UCCE scientists.

Data – and the way in which it is presented – matters a great deal. Although the video stresses moderation and doesn't explicitly urge consumers to go vegan, it states that if the world was to reduce its meat consumption, that decision alone could offset the emissions from a billion cars on the road by 2050. For the U.S., however, this contention is misleading, as the impact would be considerably smaller. 

It's true that livestock emit methane and nearly all aspects of agriculture have a carbon footprint; however, U.S. animal agriculture is much more efficient than in other parts of the world. In the U.S., livestock are responsible for 3.8 percent of GHG emissions while transportation accounts for 26.4 percent, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data. In California, 5.4 percent of GHG emissions are attributed to livestock and 37 percent to transportation, according to the California Air Resources Board.

While it is vital that scientists in UC ANR, and elsewhere, assist ranchers to continue diminishing the carbon hoofprint, it is also important to recognize that meat can serve as a high-quality protein source as part of a nutritious diet. The VOX video does note that not all livestock is raised equally, and that rangeland can be used to sequester carbon, but it neglects to mention that grazing cows also provide numerous ecosystem services, such as eating plants that could fuel wildfires and crowd out native wildflowers.

It should also be noted how livestock fit into the larger food system picture. Almost 60 percent of the world's agricultural land is grazing land and is unsuitable for producing crops. Ruminants serve a valuable role in the food system by converting the forages humans cannot consume into a nutrient-dense food.

UC ANR advisors and specialists continuously strive to improve livestock production practices; however, that is only one of many approaches we need to pursue to solve the challenges of climate change. Time, research and money should be invested where they will produce the most benefit for society. Encouraging people to focus on livestock, rather than on much larger sources of GHG emissions, can lead to policies that slow our efforts to develop more effective climate change solutions.

Glenda Humiston
Vice President

 

View or leave comments for ANR Leadership at http://ucanr.edu/sites/ANRUpdate/Comments.

This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.

  

 

Dairy and food safety, pest management and youth development program teams to meet in June

Three program teams and the associated workgroups will be meeting in June in Davis. Registration is open for the Pest Management, Dairy Production and Food Safety, and Positive Youth Development program team meetings.

Pest Management 

June 6-7

UC ANR Building, Davis, CA

Workgroup meeting times:
June 6, 8 a.m.-12:30 p.m.: Pesticide Use Reporting Workgroup, San Joaquin Valley (view agenda)
June 6, 1-4 p.m.: Integrated Management of Soilborne Pests Workgroup, San Joaquin Valley (view agenda)
June 7, 1-3 p.m.: Plant Pathology Workgroup, San Joaquin Valley (view agenda)
June 7, 1-5 p.m.: Entomology Workgroup, Coast Room (view agenda) 

Program contact: Andrew Sutherland

Website and Registration

Dairy Production and Food Safety

Thursday June 8, 9 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.

2154 Meyer Hall, UC Davis

Discussion topics include dairy production, heard health, forage production, nutrient management and more. See the full agenda at http://ucanr.edu/sites/programteams/June_8/Agenda_790.

Program contact: Deanne Meyer

Website and Registration

Positive Youth Development

June 19-22

UC ANR Building, Davis, CA

Workgroup meeting times:
June 19, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.: Diversity Workgroup, Sacramento Valley 
June 19, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.: Positive Youth Development through 4-H Camp Experience, Coast Room
June 21, 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m.: Developing Volunteer Capacity Workgroup, Sacramento Valley
June 21, 8 a.m.-1:30 p.m.: Environmental Education Workgroup, Coast Room
June 22, 9 a.m.-3 p.m.: Money Talks Workgroup, Bay Room

Program contact: Fe Moncloa

Website and Registration

For questions about meeting logistics, contact the Program Support Unit at anrprogramsupport@ucanr.edu. For more information about Program Teams, visit http://ucanr.edu/sites/programteams.

     

View or leave comments for ANR Leadership at http://ucanr.edu/sites/ANRUpdate/Comments.

This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.

Scientists using genetic editing to delete dairy cow horns

Two calves whose genes have been edited so they won't grow horns are being raised and will later be bred at UC Davis, reported Edward Ortiz in the Sacramento Bee.

Dairy cows have been bred for optimal dairy production, but the gene mix brought along horns. Angus beef were bred for optimal beef production, and don't have horns. Since the dairy industry doesn't want animals with horns because they can hurt each other or farmworkers, it is common practice to remove them shortly after birth.

Removing the horns involves an uncomfortable procedure called debudding, in which, after being treated with a local anesthetic, the cells on the animal's head that would grow into horns are killed with an electrical appliance.

"Consumers are concerned about how we care for dairy animals. They expect us to do a good job and are concerned about pain and discomfort," said UC Davis veterinarian Terry Lehenbauer in a video about the advancement (See the video below).

Using precision genetic "editing," scientists were able to delete the dairy cow gene that produced horns and replace it with the angus gene that resulted in hornlessness. 

At UC Davis, the two calves' growth and development will be tracked. Eventually they will father cows with horned mothers to see if the hornless trait is passed on to the offspring. The odds of them doing so, Van Eenennaam said, are 100 percent, if "Mendelian genetics hold true." Mendelian genetics are laws of gene inheritance discovered by 19th century monk Johann Mendel.

Van Eenennaam said it's not clear whether other, unexpected effects of the gene editing will occur. However, if successful, gene editing will allow the dairy industry to bypass decades of breeding for hornless cows.

UC ANR clarifies drought misconceptions

In two recent broadcast media stories, UC Agriculture and Natural Resources experts were able to provide accurate information about the water use on commodities that have been criticized for water consumption during the drought.

The director of UC ANR's Agricultural Issues Center, Daniel Sumner, was one of three guests on the one-hour talk radio program Your Call, which was broadcast on KALW, Local Public Radio in San Francisco. The topic - How would reducing our intake of meat and dairy affect the drought? - was prompted by off-the-cuff comments made by Gov. Jerry Brown in June. Answering the question, "Is part of the drought strategy to reduce meat consumption?" Brown replied, "If you ask me, I think you should be eating veggie burgers."

On the Your Call show, Sumner explained that beef consumption has little impact on the California drought.

"I do want to make clear, when it comes to water embedded in any product, it depends where the water is from," Sumner said. "We feed cattle in California with grain from the Midwest."

Dairy production is another issue. "Dairy cows are fed lots of grain, soybeans and canola coming from Canada and the Midwest, but also silage and alfalfa, much of which is from California. California dairy is a drought water issue. Beef really isn't."

UC ANR Cooperative Extension specialist Dan Putnam appeared on the KTVU Evening News to discuss alfalfa water use with reporter Ken Wayne. Putnam said the drought has hurt the state's alfalfa industry.

"Statewide, it's been fairly devastating," Putnam said. "We're at the lowest acreage we've seen probably since the 1930s."

He also noted the importance of the crop, a key part of dairy cattle's diets.

"An average field of alfalfa produces approximately 2,400 gallons of milk per acre," Putnam said. 

The days of guess work in cattle breeding are gone

Advances in cattle breeding over the past 60-plus years has reduced the carbon footprint of the dairy industry. DNA sequencing suggests still more productive cows and less pollution in the future, reported Lesley McClurg on Capital Public Radio.

McClurg spoke to Alison Van Eenennaam, a UC Agriculture and Natural Resources Cooperative Extension specialist. Van Eenannaam is an animal geneticist based at UC Davis.

"We used to have somewhere roundabouts 25 million dairy cows in the United States, and we're down to nine million now,” says Van Eenennaam. "It [has] actually reduced the environmental footprint of a glass of milk by two-thirds relative to the 1950's."

Van Eenennaam is currently studying cattle genomics to understand the animals susceptibility to respiratory disease. Her research is funded by the USDA Agriculture and Food Research Initiative.

Read more about the benefits of genomics to the dairy industry and the environment in the UC Green Blog.

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