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Beef Buzz News


Stable Cattle Herd is Climate Neutral Says California Scientist Dr. Frank Mitloehner

Mon, 12 Oct 2020 08:28:41 CDT

Stable Cattle Herd is Climate Neutral Says California Scientist Dr. Frank Mitloehner Cattle are not to blame for climate change, says Dr. Frank Mitloehner, professor and air quality specialist in Cooperative Extension in the Animal Science Department at the University of California, Davis.

Mitloehner has been a popular guest speaker on many virtual cattle industry meetings this year.

He challenges the idea advanced by environmentalists that cattle are to blame for greenhouse gases.

Mitloehner credits the cattle industry for reducing the carbon footprint and suggests cattle are climate neutral.

I believe beef is on its way to becoming climate neutral, he said.

Cattle emit methane, a gas that remains in the atmosphere for only 10 years.

Methane converts to CO2 during that 10 years, he said.

The carbon in the methane is not new carbon but rather recycled carbon, Mitloehner said.

He explains the bio cycle as carbon was in the atmosphere, absorbed by plants, eaten by cattle, goes into methane and the cycle starts over.

This is a different process than what happens with methane from fossil fuels, which operates on a 1,000-year bio cycle.

If the cattle herd remains about the same over a 10-year period, there is no net increase in methane.

Since 1974 we have had a decrease in herd size and we are now producing beef with 50 million fewer head, he said.

The California scientist uses the image of two bathtubs, one with a faucet but no drain, the other has both a faucet and a drain.

Every time we burn fossil fuels we add to the existing level of CO2 in the atmosphere.

The fossil fuels bathtub basically does not have a drain.

Methane is different since it is a bathtub with a drain.

The level will remain stable as methane is produced, he said.

The bottom line is a stable cattle herd means stable or neutral greenhouse gas emissions.

Click on the LISTEN BAR below to hear more comments from Dr. Mitloehner.

The Beef buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR below for today's show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.


   
   

Ron Hays Beef Buzzes With Dr. Frank Mitloehner
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