In a lot of the areas where cattle are grazing that land is marginal land and is not suitable for growing crops. If it weren’t for cattle and their amazing ability to turn low quality forage into high quality protein this land would be virtually useless. Because of cattle on the land there are able to produce protein for us as humans to sustain us, but also these grasslands are amazing habitats for many other species. Cattle and these other species can co-habitat on the grasslands perfectly.
In addition to, keeping our native grasslands intact and providing biodiversity, cattle also help in the fight against food waste. Cattle are up cyclers. Because they are ruminants (they have 4 stomachs) they can use food that would otherwise go to waste. There are many farms and ranches that use the byproducts from human food production to feed to their cows.
Many of these operations would have a nutritionist that can balance the animals ration (diet) to ensure they are getting the proper amount of nutrients vitamins and minerals, but also making sure what is being fed is adequate in quality and quantity for the animal to meet their nutritional requirements in terms of energy and protein. French fries are fed to cattle and carrots these are food products that weren’t the right size or shape so aren’t sold for human consumption.
On our ranch we also try and use some by products. We have fed beet pulp pellets and grain screenings and pea and lentil flour and screenings. All these things are by products and the parts of the that are left over from processing from human consumption. If we didn’t have cattle to up-cycle these products we would have even more food waste.
I am biased because I think cows are awesome anyhow, but I think all these things combined really show cattle positive impact on the environment.
Below are some great videos about how cattle impact our environment.
Video: "How to Cattle Combat Food Waste?" Part 1 and 2
https://vimeo.com/458652017
https://vimeo.com/458652017
