Beef cattle is big business in Kansas.
The state holds the United States’ third largest number of cattle on ranches and feedyards — 6.5 million head, behind only Texas and Nebraska — and generates nearly $9 billion in cash receipts annually. In 2019, the Kansas Department of Agriculture noted that Kansas’ beef sector accounted for 55% of the state’s agricultural cash receipts that year.
But Logan Thompson — a sustainable grazing specialist in Kansas State University’s Department of Animal Sciences and Industry — knows that the industry’s success also comes with a great responsibility.
“As an agricultural industry, we have a social license to operate within the realms of society at large,” he said. “So when our consumer base has issues — historically for the beef industry it’s been welfare, and now primarily climate issues — we have had to stand up and face those issues and make the changes required.”
Thompson was a featured speaker during the 110th annual K-State Cattlemen’s Day, held March 3 in Manhattan. His talk, “Practical Solutions to Environmental Concerns,” highlighted the afternoon portion of this year’s program.
Thompson’s talk included findings on research on rotational versus continuous grazing that he’s been involved with for several years, first as a student in Alabama and continuing with upcoming trials in North Dakota and South Dakota.
“We’re looking at overall carbon and nitrogen flux, animal performance, enteric methane and trying to measure everything we can” to better understand the challenges of containing the release of methane into the atmosphere, he said.
Source: agupdate.com
Categories: Kansas, Livestock, Beef Cattle