Methods and consequences of including reduction in greenhouse gas emission in beef cattle multiple-trait selection.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Societal pressures exist to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from farm animals, especially in beef cattle. Both total GHG and GHG emissions per unit of product decrease as productivity increases. Limitations of previous studies on GHG emissions are that they generally describe feed intake inadequately, assess the consequences of selection on particular traits only, or examine consequences for only part of the production chain. Here, we examine GHG emissions for the whole production chain, with the estimated cost of carbon included as an extra cost on traits in the breeding objective of the production system.

Methods

We examined an example beef production system where economic merit was measured from weaning to slaughter. The estimated cost of the carbon dioxi

SUBMITTER: Barwick SA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6489274 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature