By managing soils for growing crops and raising livestock, the world's farmers are unconsciously, managing a soil carbon reservoir that is roughly equivalent to the total carbon that would be released after 100 years of fossil fuel burning at the current world rate.
Agriculture Canada3
Plants and trees are nature’s way of dealing with carbon emissions, but this process produces cellulose which humans cannot digest. Ruminants like Galloways convert cellulose to beef and milk, an important part of your balanced diet.
Galloways and other ruminants don’t have to apologize for the methane they produce. Ask your scientists to tell you the rest of the story! Farts and belches are part of nature’s cycle. The methane is absorbed by the grasses cattle eat.1
Grass fed natural beef is environmentally sound. Methane and plays important roles in enhancing plant tolerance against abiotic (non-living) )stresses, such as salinity, drought and heavy metal exposure while promoting root development. Methane also delays senescence (aging) and browning of plants.1 Through photosynthesis our grasslands also remove the other significant greenhouse gasses – nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
“Ruminants (like Galloways) represent 11.6% of anthropogenic (ie, caused by humans) emissions while raising grains while the growing of legumes and grains contributes 13.6%. Ruminants consuming only grazed forages results in more carbon sequestration than emissions.”2
“The main gases emitted by agricultural activities are carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. 10% of Canada's greenhouse gas emissions are from agriculture which includes both crop and livestock production. This total excludes emissions from the use of fossil fuels or from fertilizer production.”3
The main source of fertilizer in livestock production is organic manure. As noted in the quote above, Agriculture Canada includes the emissions that occur in the breakdown of manure from livestock production, but does not include the emissions from the production, distribution of chemical fertilizer or the added machine time in the fields for fertilizer application, crop spraying and harvesting required in grain and legume production.
One must also note that farmers help slow climate change by storing carbon on agricultural lands by sequestering carbon in soil as organic matter. The best crops for this sequestration is perennial vegetation. Grasses used in grazing are therefore, an important factor in reducing greenhouse gasses from the atmosphere.
As the chart on the left shows, 77% of Canada’s greenhouse gasses are produced by carbon emitting industries, transportation and stationary combustion sources such as power plants and home heating. Only 10% comes from agriculture.
Livestock manure provides food for bacteria and earthworms, is an excellent soil conditioner and also aids in water retention. These nutrients are available immediately for a plants use.
A teaspoon of healthy soil houses about 10,000 living species of microbes. Tilling the land exposes these these anaerobic (living in absence of free air) organisms to air.
On our cattle farms we use natures way, self propelled fertilizer systems (also known as cows). As well as leaving a trail of organics (also known as cow poo or manure) on the land, cows trample grasses which also returns the nutrients of grasses back into the land.
LINKS TO RESEARCH
1 Li L, Wei S, Shen W. The role of methane in plant physiology: a review. Plant Cell Rep. 2020 Feb; 39(2):171-179. doi: 10.1007/s00299-019-02478-y. Epub 2019 Oct 23. PMID: 31646372.
2 The Role of Ruminants in Reducing Agriculture’s Carbon Footprint in North America Journal of Soil and Water Conservation March/April 2016
3 Agriculture Canada – Greenhouse gases and agriculture
4 Manure effects on soil organisms and soil quality Michigan State University Extension | Emerging issues in animal agriculture
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