| That source is primarily examining conventional feedlot approaches. > An all grass cow-calf – to – finish operation was included as a minor component in the eastern and northwestern regions They examined a single all grass finished operation. There are studies that have found grass finishing can cut emissions in cattle by as much as 80%. > The modeled operations were not intended to be actual operations; they were developed to represent the practices found in each region. > Environmental footprints for all individually simulated ranch and feedlot operations were integrated into full production systems within their respective study regions using two methods They also don't appear to be measuring actual operations, but rather modeling operations based on surveys of farmers and ranchers about the characteristics of their operations and then extrapolating from there. Models have their place for sure, but I wouldn't make any kind of declaration of certainty based on a single model-based study. You have to average the outputs of hundreds or thousands of models, and even then, you can't be sure you have the answer. A better approach would be one that measures the actual output of each operation at various phases and averages across them. Difficult to do, but I've seen studies that attempted it. |