Farm scale modelling of greenhouse gas emissions from semi-intensive suckler cow beef production

Mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions from beef cattle production systems

“…This study was based on a previous study of GHG emissions from typical herds of British and Continental breeds in Norway (Samsonstuen et al, 2019). Fourteen mitigation scenarios were designed to reflect the variation in production efficiency among Norwegian beef cattle herds.…”

“…Baseline (BL) scenarios were developed to represent each typical herd; British (Angus and Hereford) and Continental (Limousin, Simmental, and Charolais) breeds with associated geographical location, management, and production levels as described by Samsonstuen et al (2019). For both breeds the farms were located in the flatlands (average altitude 246 m above sea level) of Norway, with a land size ranging between 45.4 and 50.1 ha.…”

“…Beef has a large GHG emission intensity albeit with considerable variation among continents, countries (Gerber et al, 2013) and farms within a country (Bonesmo et al, 2013). The emission intensity of beef production depends upon breed (Hyslop, 2008), geographical location (White et al, 2010;Samsonstuen et al, 2019), farming system (Nguyen et al, 2010), and management practices (Alemu et al, 2017;Stanley et al, 2018). Hristov et al (2013) showed potential long-term mitigation effects from ruminant production through improved reproductive performance, increased beef production and various management practices such as diet formulation, feed supplements, and manure management.…”

“…Enteric CH 4 emissions account for approximately half the emissions from beef cattle production (Foley et al, 2011;Mogensen et al, 2015;Samsonstuen et al, 2019), hence various feed additives have been examined for their anti-methanogenic properties. These include various phyto-compounds (essential oils, oregano, garlic, green tea extract, condensed and hydrolysable tannins), microbials (live yeast, bacterial direct-fed probiotics), ionophores, dietary lipids, and chemical inhibitors (Hristov et al, 2013;Bayat et al, 2015Bayat et al, , 2017Kolling et al, 2018).…”

“…The emission intensities from typical herds of British and Continental breeds in two geographically different regions in Norway were estimated by Samsonstuen et al (2019). However, that study did not include GHG mitigation options such as improved cow efficiency, beef production efficiency or the effect of inhibitors.…”