Meat Eaters Guide: Methodology - Environmental Working Group
Meat Eaters Guide: Methodology - Environmental Working Group
Meat Eaters Guide: Methodology - Environmental Working Group
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Confined finishing (feedlot) stage:<br />
• Steers are fed a high-concentrate ration consisting of corn, some hay and supplements for<br />
170 days, until the animal weight reaches 1,365 lbs.<br />
• The manure is collected and maintained in dry, solid covered storage.<br />
• Other inputs at this stage include diesel fuel and electricity. Although water is used in the operation,<br />
the data source does not itemize the actual quantities of water used. Therefore, water<br />
is currently excluded at this stage of the model due to lack of data.<br />
Additional Modeling Details:<br />
• Animals in the Nebraska case are transported 100 km between the cow-calf and steer stage<br />
and 100 km from the stocker production to finishing feedlot phase in 18-wheel tractor-trailers<br />
specially designed to haul cattle. Default transport assumptions (300 km) are used in the<br />
Idaho model, though sensitivity to this assumption is very low (see discussion in section<br />
C.3.b.)<br />
• Co-products include hides, tallow and meat-and-bone meal, as well as culled or replaced<br />
animals in the first two stages.<br />
b. LCA RESULTS<br />
Table 4 Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Beef Production (at farmgate)<br />
Beef Production System kg of CO 2 e per pound of edible beef<br />
Idaho 13.86<br />
Nebraska 16.60<br />
Average 15.23<br />
Table 5. Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Beef Consumption (post-farmgate)<br />
Emission Sources kg of CO 2 e per pound of consumed beef<br />
Processing 1.26<br />
Domestic transport 0.33<br />
Refrigeration (Retail) 0.08<br />
Home cooking 1.00<br />
Waste disposal 0.09<br />
Total 2.76<br />
<strong>Environmental</strong> <strong>Working</strong> <strong>Group</strong> <strong>Meat</strong> <strong>Eaters</strong> <strong>Guide</strong>: <strong>Methodology</strong> 2011 25