[pkphilip]

Cattle/livestock is also used for improving the quality/fertility of the soil for growing crops. It drastically reduces the need for harmful fertlizers, the need to till the land as much (reducing diesel usage) etc.. Also, the milk and meat is a nice bonus.

[loceng]

The Sacred Cow documentary is worth watching which goes into detail of this cycle - including that a lot (most?) crops use animal manure for fertilizing, so you still need the animals.

[pkphilip]

Apart from that, livestock grazing has been used effectively to fight desertification by Allan Savory and others.

https://ourworld.unu.edu/en/reversing-desertification-with-l...