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Article: Cattle & the environment.(Homestead livestock)
- Article from:
- Countryside & Small Stock Journal
- Article date:
- July 1, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 Countryside Publications Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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I've read recently a lot about the scourge of cattle as a greenhouse gas emitter. Perhaps in the context of deforestation of the Amazon and industrial feedlot production, this is so. However, I live on a 15-acre property in Eastern Ontario and I keep a few Belted Galloways on the property to clean up the weeds and ditches, and find that they live in harmony with the property around them. I would even go so far as to say that they improve it in a lot of ways.
For starters, we should look at the environmental issues caused by raising cattle for food. First, it takes a lot of energy to convert plant material into beef protein, something like a 10:1 rate or even ...