In this podcast Dr. Kim Ominski explores the impact of cattle and the environment. She presents an equation where impacts of GHG as well as benefits such as biodiversity and carbon sequestration are considered. What cattle eat, how they affect the environment, and the research being done to further improve the sustainability of livestock production systems in Canada are covered.
Kim Ominski is a professor at the University of Manitoba and Director of the National Centre for Livestock and the Environment. Her multi-disciplinary research program focuses on strategies for improving the long term sustainability of beef cattle production systems.
In this podcast Dr. Kim Ominski explores the impact of cattle and the environment. She presents an equation where impacts of GHG as well as benefits such as biodiversity and carbon sequestration are considered. What cattle eat, how they affect the environment, and the research being done to further improve the sustainability of livestock production systems in Canada are covered.
Kim Ominski is a professor at the University of Manitoba and Director of the National Centre for Livestock and the Environment. Her multi-disciplinary research program focuses on strategies for improving the long term sustainability of beef cattle production systems.
Welcome to the Manitoba Agriculture and Food Knowledge Exchange podcast. I'm your host, Jordan Cicewa. And today we're going to be talking about greenhouse gases. This is a very important topic to get into and especially an important topic to get the facts and the research, right? So we've gone to an excellent source for those. We've gone to Dr. Kim Ominski with over 20 years identifying strategies to improve the productivity and sustainability of beef cattle production in Western Canada. Dr. Kim Ominski is the director of the National Centre for Livestock and Environment at the University of Manitoba. And she's here to discuss greenhouse gases. So Dr. Ominski, what role do greenhouse gases play in agriculture in Canada?
Dr. Kim Ominski:So agriculture accounts for approximately 8% of all greenhouse gas emissions in Canada. And this might in fact come as a surprise to many people. The majority of greenhouse gas emissions in Canada are actually produced as a consequence of burning fossil fuels. Now those burning of fossil fuels obviously affords all of us, yourself, myself, a lot of luxuries, including driving cars to go to and from work every day, driving our kids to sporting events, music events, and other things.
Jordan Cicewa:And this is, I think this is something that more people need to know is that it's quite a low number. And that's something that pointing that out is really important that, that our, our food has to cost greenhouse gas.
Dr. Kim Ominski:Right. So I think that it's, you know, it's, it's, it is a low number, but on that front, I would say that the ag sector continues to work, you know, through improved management strategies to reduce that number even further.
Jordan Cicewa:So where does the greenhouse gas come from?'Cause I think that's, that's a point of confusion for myself and I, you know, I'm not somebody on the farm, so where do we actually see those greenhouse gases produced?
Dr. Kim Ominski:Right. That's a really good question. So on livestock farms, greenhouse gases are produced from a number of different places. And actually most of that comes from, you know, the, the breakdown of products. So for example, the digestion of feed, manure and synthetic fertilizers, those are all sources of greenhouse gases. If we want to focus on digestion of feed, just for a moment, ruminants, all cattle that have, or sorry, all livestock like cattle, bison, um, that have four stomachs have the capacity to break down these highly fibrous feedstuffs that humans can't eat. So this unique digestive system, the presence of a rumen, which is one of those four stomachs allows animals to break down these, these highly digestive feeds and, or sorry, highly fibrous feeds as a consequence of that breakdown, methane is produced. So really what cattle are doing is they're taking these low quality feed stuffs that humans can't eat and they have the capacity to turn it into high quality protein.
Jordan Cicewa:Yeah. And this is, this is the, the interesting part to me, your research and, and a lot of the research at the University of Manitoba and many other universities, you guys you're, you are all looking for ways to further reduce those emissions, correct?
Dr. Kim Ominski:Yes, that's correct. So I would say that we are doing research to look at strategies. So we look at feeding management practices. We look at manure management practices, but I think it's also important to note that as a consequence of adoption of these on-farm practices, that the cattle industry, for example, has been able to reduce emissions by about 15% in the last 30 years. So that means it takes fewer animals and less land to produce the same number of kilograms of beef that it did 30 years ago. Now you might ask, do we have the opportunity to move even further than that? And I would say, yes, we do. And that's why we continue to do research to, to identify what these management strategies might be to, um, to, to move that even further and make greater progress in that way.
Jordan Cicewa:Let's, let's take this a little up even further. How are our greenhouse gases actually produced from cattle?
Dr. Kim Ominski:So, um, as I said, cattle have this unique digestive system where they have four stomachs rather than one like humans do. And the first of those stomachs is called the rumen and this rumen, um, has the capacity because it has bacteria and protozoa in it. It has these microbes in it. It has the capacity to break down these highly fibrous feeds, which are not digestible by humans. As the feed is being digested, um, a by-product of that, um, feed digestion is actually methane. And so the animals, um, actually belch methane, um, into the environment as they're digesting the feed. So it's a bit of a paradox because we have this utilization of low quality feed stuffs, conversion by an animal into high quality protein. Um, but at the same time, we have the production of methane and it's the capacity to utilize these highly fibrous feed stuffs that offers several advantages from an environmental sustainability perspective. And maybe I'll, I'll just mention two of those. So we call this highly fibrous feed stuff forage, it's kind of the generic term for highly fibrous feed stuffs that animals can consume forage includes grasslands. And when cattle graze grasslands, um, these grasslands are very unique in and of themselves in that they have the capacity to be able to what we call sequester carbon. So that means they can, as most plants do, they can take carbon from the atmosphere and they store it in the root mass of that plant. And so that carbon sequestration is actually very positive from an environmental perspective. Um, and at the same time, these grasslands also are home to a number of different species of animals. And this is what we call biodiversity. Not only is it species of animals, but species of plants as well. So these grasslands are very important for birds, for example, um, and you know, for other, um, you know, ground dwelling, um, um, rodents. So these are these, these grasslands provide a really unique opportunity and they need to be managed well in order to be able to sustain carbon sequestration and biodiversity as an example.
Jordan Cicewa:Interesting. So basically we've got ruminants, cattle, bison et cetera, who are able to graze lands that wouldn't produce food for humans, and that grazing actually improves the, the ability for those plants to do their job in sequestering, carbon dioxide.
Dr. Kim Ominski:Right? So in maintaining these grasslands, you're exactly right. Grazing is an important part of maintaining them. Now it might come as a surprise or to many people that, um, the perception is, is that cattle for most of their lives, um, are on, um, or consuming feeds that are, um, also consumable by humans. And that's true. There are some feed stuffs that we do use in, in, in cattle diets, but the vast majority about 85% of what an animal eats in its lifetime is made up of these forages or these highly, um, these highly fibrous feeds. And in addition to these, um, you know, these grasslands, the other opportunity that we have in livestock production is that when we process, um, you know, cereal grains or oil seeds, we produce the main product that we want. So for example, I'll use canola oil. When we process canola, we produce canola oil as the primary ingredient that's used for human consumption. It's also used for industrial oils, but a by-product of that processing is something called canola meal. It is very high in protein, and it is an excellent feed source for many different livestock species. If we didn't have livestock to consume these by-products and canola is only one example, for example, you know, when wheat is cleaned to be made into bread, the, the screenings that are used, um, from that wheat are an excellent source of feed for ruminants. So if we didn't have ruminants to, to use all of these by- products as part of their diet, um, the, we would have to dispose of those, um, in another way. And that obviously has an environmental cost associated with it.
Jordan Cicewa:Dr. Ominski, it is so much fun listening to you talk this, this is the interesting stuff that I don't most consumers know, uh, when it comes to the consumption of what are ruminants cattle eating. And, and to know that we would literally have tons of by-product to, to get rid of, if we didn't have these animals eating it, that that's fascinating to me and you as a researcher, let's talk about your research in general and what would happen if we removed livestock from the landscape.
Dr. Kim Ominski:Right. That's a really good question. It's a very complex question, of course, but it is an excellent question and we are actually doing some of that work right now. So, um, some of our colleagues in the U.S. have already conducted, um, that sort of analysis in the U.S. And what they found is that if you removed livestock from the landscape, that overall emissions across all sectors would be reduced by about 2.6%. When I say emissions, I mean, greenhouse gas emissions. However, um, as I mentioned previously, not only would we have to find, um, strategies to reduce the byproducts that are consumed by ruminants, but we would also have to replace the manure fertilizer that we use, um, that obviously comes from ruminants with synthetic fertilizer, um, as a source of fertility for plants.
Jordan Cicewa:So basically we can, we could remove the cattle from, from the land and save ourselves 2.6% on greenhouse gas by this research. But I I'm, um, am I to understand, we don't know the effects per se, all of the greenhouse gas side of it to remove the, the byproducts that the cattle eat, as well as fertilizing the plants that we would then need to, to switch that with.
Dr. Kim Ominski:Right? So the consideration is not only we would have, we would have a small reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Um, but as you said, we would have to get rid of the by- products. And we would also have to look for alternative sources of, uh, fertility for plants in terms of synthetic fertilizer. But the other thing that we have to consider is the fact that much of this land is not suitable, um, for crop production. So, um, grazing land, we talked about grasslands, those grasslands, many of them are not suitable for crop production. And so as a consequence, we would then have impacts in terms of our capacity of these, um, what we call perennial forages, meaning they're there all the time. You don't have to see them every year. They regrow every year. Um, these perennial forages, as we said, your grasslands sequester a lot of carbon, and they also provide home to many plant and animal species in terms of enhancing the biodiversity of the landscape
Jordan Cicewa:Beautifully said, so everything works together to keep our environment healthy. Um, what as, again, you're, you're a researcher, this is all, this is your, your, your life's work is around this. What are the next steps in your research?
Dr. Kim Ominski:Right. So, as I said, you know, this is very complex. Agricultural systems or agro ecosystems are very complicated. And there really is, um, you know, no silver bullet. That would be the ideal that we would have one management strategy and said, you know, if producers employed the single management strategy, uh, it would solve all the problems, but that's not possible because in agriculture, um, every system operates under different constraints under with different landscapes, different water cycles, different plant and soil types. And so there's many, many factors to consider. And in our research, that's what we're trying to do is to capture the complexities of our agro ecosystems by asking questions, like, how do we capture the value of biodiversity? What risks do we take if we use one environmental measure, like greenhouse gases, for example, to make future decisions regarding Canada's grasslands and the cattle that use them. And we're trying to take a balanced approach with research that provides really a holistic assessment of the best ways in which we can use our resources to produce food for humans, because that's, that's what we, um, are obviously the end point of our, of our work. And as I said, these are very complex issues. It's a much bigger picture that doesn't fit into a single soundbite, you know, greenhouse gases. If we focus on one greenhouse gases fits into a soundbite, biodiversity doesn't, and really, as I said, we need to consider all of these environmental indices, uh, when we think about, um, livestock production systems.
Jordan Cicewa:So to clarify on that is if I looked at you and said, solve this problem of greenhouse gas, that's one of those things that, that, if I'm, if my concern is the environment, I have to look at the big picture and not only greenhouse gases, is that kind of the, uh, uh, some of this?
Dr. Kim Ominski:Yes, absolutely. So we know there's management systems that we can use that would substantially reduce greenhouse gases and animals, but they might hinder biodiversity at the same time. Obviously we can enhance biodiversity and then try to balance greenhouse gases within those production systems. And I think that's really our ultimate goal is, you know, because fewer and fewer people have the luxury of being connected to where their food is produced. They really genuinely just want to know more and finding balanced, um, information, uh, in order to be able to answer those questions is not as easy as you would think. So as researchers, our job isn't to convince consumers what to eat, or how to eat it, but it's really to provide information and then to help them think critically about the food that they eat and how, um, and how it's produced. You know, presently, we have a few pieces of the puzzle put together, but we're really just starting to tell the whole story.
Jordan Cicewa:I love what you said there that as a researcher, it's not our job to convince you what to eat. It's to provide the information that, that, to me, I am so grateful that you and the team at the University of Manitoba, that's how you look at it. And that's what you guys are doing. The team is phenomenal. And I really appreciate your time today explaining greenhouse gases and the role of biodiversity that.
Dr. Kim Ominski:Yes. Thank you very much, Jordan, for the opportunity.