Evaluation of Strategies to Improve the Environmental and Economic Sustainability of Cow-Calf Production Systems.

ABSTRACT: Grazing cow-calf production systems account for 60 to 70% of the greenhouse gas emissions of U.S. beef production. The objective of this analysis was to evaluate the importance of management strategies (cow maintenance energy requirements, reproductive efficiency, forage nutritive value, and forage yield) on the sustainability of cow-calf production systems using a sensitivity analysis in a production systems model. The Beef Cattle Systems Model was used to simulate a cow-calf production system in the Kansas Flint Hills using Angus genetics over a 24 year time period. The model was modified to create variation among cow herds in the base net energy for the maintenance requirement (NEm_Req), postpartum interval (PPI), grazed forage digestibility (Forage_TDN), and forage yield per hectare (F

SUBMITTER: Lancaster PA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8833546 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature