Interesting article - water and climate change

[blackpowder]

Insects also are very efficient feed converters.
Cricket farms convert grain to protein cheap?

Let the buffalo roam the poor land I guess.

[grassfarmer]

Grassy my wife wrote her thesis on methane and co2 emissions from livestock...

Cattle emit more co2 they don't themselves "sink" any.

But as a tool properly used to manage the land they can have a remarkable effect increasing sequestration of CO2. Something else that is included in the research implying "cattle are bad for the planet" are the emissions naturally produced by decaying forage on grasslands/rangelands - yet this is blamed on the cow whether there is one grazing the land or not. So if you decide cows are bad, get rid of them all, you are still left with these emissions. You'll also have emissions from wild ungulates whose population would explode in most areas of grazing land/bush if you remove the cows. Would you get rid of all the wildlife too?
It's a very complex issue and one where the decisions have to be carefully weighed based on a large number of intricacies.

[biglentil]

Lol give it up already Grassy. No one believes that your magic cows sequester carbon dioxide. Wildlife are not fed and watered in a feedlot all winter long.

[grassfarmer]

Lol give it up already Grassy. No one believes that your magic cows sequester carbon dioxide. Wildlife are not fed and watered in a feedlot all winter long.

Lol, you're the one who should give up while you're behind. So now it's feeding and watering in a feedlot that causes the cattle emissions? I'll be fine then - mine are never in the corrals apart from sorting them. So what do the wildlife exhale?

[biglentil]

Look at the chart grassy 1kg of beef production contributes 27kg of C02. Its not just feedlots its every human activity thats involved in raising domesticated livestock that contributes to the C02 levels. From pounding fence posts and hanging wire, pumping water, bailing and hauling feed, corral panels you use to sort, and lets not even get into the packing and storage..... My lentils do not consume energy and exhale C02 all year long just to move around and stay warm. Wildlife does not sequester nor contribute its zero sum.

You are a big offender no way around it.

[Hamloc]

Due to all of our forests and our large land base in Canada we are a net sequester of C02, something we are not credited for. We should be selling carbon credits to they world instead of paying a carbon tax. Unfortunately Grassfarmer you come across as an arrogant left leaning elitist, I fully appreciate that you do a very good job of managing your grass based beef system. You seem to feel those of us that object to a carbon tax are uneducated misinformed buffoons. Trudeau openly admits he has done no economic analysis, he just says it has to be done. I also do not believe I could cut 80% of my GHG emissions from my cow herd without drastic herd reduction, Grassfarmer if you prefer to pretend you can all the more power to you.

[grassfarmer]

Look at the chart grassy 1kg of beef production contributes 27kg of C02

Yeah , and acknowledge the figures from the research work in SK showing that for every kg of cattle emissions between 17 and 39Kgs are sequestered. Your combine or sprayer can't do that, nor can your lentil crop.

Wildlife does not sequester nor contribute its zero sum.

Really? it's ZERO SENSE more like. Every living thing is emitting CO2 - humans, plants, livestock and wildlife. How much their activities contribute to sequestration varies but to argue that wildlife neither sequester nor contribute is obviously false.[/QUOTE]

Unfortunately Grassfarmer you come across as an arrogant left leaning elitist....You seem to feel those of us that object to a carbon tax are uneducated misinformed buffoons.

I can't control how my posts are perceived by others, I'm just presenting my argument to the best of my ability as you are allowed to in a democracy. Sorry if that offends you.

[blackpowder]

I think theres a lot to be said for grasses methods.
The trick for him will be to convince, and differentiate himself with the new power elite.
I see the possible future of beef for a % of NA market. Until its commoditized of course.

[Klause]

Field crops sequester roughly 3 to 5 t/ha/yr of carbon.



This includes those used by livestock.


Still haven't explained your premise... cattle require transportation meat requires cooled shipping... cooled marketing and usually far more carbon intensive transportation methods.


Grain production is far far more carbon neutral... you're forgetting how much co2 is sequestered by zero till.


And we don't use very much fuel per acre these days anymore....

[Klause]

Plus your wildlife argument... if humans didn't exist and thus we didn't have agriculture there would be large amounts of wildlife yes. .. but the argument these idiot climate change yuppies use is humans are causing the issue...



Circular reasoning eh?


I'm not saying the climate isn't changing.... I'm saying humans have very little to do with it.