“If climate change means a warming earth with a temperate climate shifting north in the northern hemisphere, will there be less range forage and fewer irrigation water sources throughout the Great Basin?”
Most of the readers of this and other similar publications are aware of the great contributions made by livestock grazing that is responsible, managed, and sustainable on lands such as those in the Great Basin which are otherwise unsuitable for use by humans for food.
As a general thought, use of agriculture to help protect resources is not something most people think about, or if they do, it is just the opposite; agriculture does not protect but harms resources.
It is clear the climate of the world is changing. The arguments for how and why this is happening do very little to solve the problem of what to do about it. In fact, these opinions get in the way of figuring out ways to help humans deal with climate change and the increasing human population which will be faced with steadily growing pressures to provide for the basic needs of people all over the world. Access to food, shelter, education, health care, and fresh, clean water will all be more important in the context of also dealing with a changing climate.
These challenges are all interrelated. Thus, for example providing adequate food and water for human needs are not separate issues because you cannot raise a food supply with shortages of water and water quality is impacted by raising food.
The total agricultural land in the world is a bit less than 40% of the land mass. Around 26.3% is rangeland used for livestock production. Only about 11% of the total land in the world is arable and used for crop production with another 3.1% in vineyards and orchards. In contrast, about 3% of the earth’s land is given over to urban areas.
Specifically, what will be the impacts of climate change on the Great Basin and the traditional operations of this vast geographic region in the intermountain west? Furthermore, the new administration has made addressing the challenges of climate change one of the hallmarks of its agenda. What will be the ramifications of this political agenda for western rangeland agriculture?
According to the Resource Director of the National Cattlemen’s Association, Katlynn Glover working at the NCBA office in Washington, D.C., for the next four years, climate will be at the center of every policy consideration. Lands, public and private, used by ranchers in the west for grazing are integral for carbon storage, and critical habitat for wildlife including endangered species. Cattle and sheep are the first line of defense against fuel loading that contributes to catastrophic wildfire. They are also the best first responders when lands destroyed by wildfires risk being overtaken by invasive annual plants.
U.S. rangelands and pasture are also very important for capturing and making use of rainfall even in high desert areas like Nevada which would otherwise be runoff in urban areas. The livestock industry uses about 90% of this green water in the production of its animals which otherwise is unavailable for humans without significant intervention.
Livestock production is also very important for improving soil health and potential carbon sequestration is a critical component to buffer against the effects of climate change. In fact, according to the U.S. Global Climate Change Research Program in Washington D.C., U.S. grazing lands utilized by the beef industry alone are responsible for storing 7.4Pg carbon annually which is the equivalent of taking 5.76 billion cars off the road.
An emerging market for carbon storage is being seriously explored. Companies needing carbon credits are looking at rangeland and pasture storage as possibilities for their needs. In the west The Ecosystem Services Market Consortium and Western Sustainability Exchange have pilot programs with select producers to explore market possibilities. It is possible such an idea would not work for Great Basin ranches because of limitations of acreage, bureaucratic restrictions, and geography. However, the very fact such discussions are occurring regarding ranch land sequestration is a recognition the livestock industry has a part to play in creating solutions and is not the problem.
Agriculture in the Great Basin has historically been centered on livestock grazing. Except in a few well-irrigated valleys, crop production has been primarily hay growing and harvesting to provide winter feeding for sheep and cattle which graze on ranges and pastures for most of the year. Row crop production is mostly limited to Carson Valley, Mason Valley, and the Lahonton Valley in Western Nevada.
If climate change means a warming earth with a temperate climate shifting north in the northern hemisphere, will there be less range forage and fewer irrigation water sources throughout the Great Basin?
Already, in the Siberian region of Russia, row crops such as corn and soybeans are being cultivated where such agriculture would never have been possible, let alone successful, a decade or more ago. A market for these commodities exists in China which has population centers relatively close to these newly emerging agricultural regions. My guess is the agricultural techniques being used in Russia and the rest of the world were developed in North America. The challenges to agriculture will also most successfully be addressed on our continent too. This includes dealing with the impacts of climate change to producing forages in pastures and on ranges.
Thus, with the above in mind, we can say confidently, one important consideration for the benefit of the future of mankind is the protection and proper management of the world’s limited agricultural resources. It is also incumbent on those who are using resources in a proper way agriculturally and sustainably to provide a model for those who are not doing things which will ultimately benefit the people and resources of the earth.
Livestock, particularly range cattle and sheep, are what has recently been termed “up cyclers”. This is a situation where livestock growers utilize plants of little or no value as food for human consumption-grass- by providing these plants as forage for their animals through the stored energy from the sun and photosynthesis which then ultimately creates food for humans as the best protein on earth.
Sustainability is another buzzword being used and heard more recently. American beef production is among the most sustainable agricultural systems in the world and is a model for how the rest of the world could use limited resources to increase production and put less of a strain on the climate. For instance, the U.S. is now producing 18% of the world’s beef with just 6% of the world’s cattle. Another way to look at this is we are producing the same number of pounds of beef today as we did in 1977 with about a third less cattle.
Many of the ranches in Nevada are still producing after over 150 years of existence. If this is not a sustainable model nothing is. Care for the earth’s limited resources is what livestock ranchers do while providing significant food for an increasing world population needing high quality protein. The improvements in livestock production through genetic science, range science, nutritional and animal health advances, and conservation initiatives has resulted in a progressive industry leading the way for the world to follow. Indeed, new ways to be better and more sustainable in livestock production are being discovered and implemented all the time.
In 2006, the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations issued a report entitled “Livestock’s Long Shadow”. This report claimed livestock was responsible for more greenhouse gasses than transportation. This report was subsequently debunked and ridiculed by the scientific community for its misrepresentations, inaccuracies, untruths and faulty science in books, journals, and news reports over and over. And yet, the allegations against livestock persist and are used by any number of organizations who oppose animal agriculture.
You all have heard about farting cows letting huge quantities of methane enter the atmosphere when we all know a ruminant is incapable of that bodily function. Instead, it is a fact methane does escape a belching cow chewing her cud. But what the anti-animal ag folks do not say is methane is a quickly dissolving gas only lasting about ten years in the atmosphere, and it is recycled. In other words, all the methane there is, is all there ever has been.
An example to support this assertion is the number of bison, about 80 million, in North America at the time of European settlement and the number of beef cattle, about 90 million now, which replaced the bison. According to Dr. Frank Mitloehner of the University of California, Davis: “The amount of methane that came from those bison back in 1850 is not dissimilar to the amount of methane produced by our cattle today”. Mitloehner is a world-renowned authority on greenhouse gasses. In contrast, carbon dioxide emitted by petroleum- based engines lasts over a thousand years and this compound is created every time a gallon of petroleum is produced.
Ashley McDonald, the Senior Director of Sustainability at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), recently said:” by continuously improving grazing lands to stimulate plant and root growth (pulling down more CO2 from the atmosphere), then climate positive beef is possible…If the world wants to address global warming (along with many other related issues like catastrophic wildfires), cattle are not only a part of the equation, but are the best solution”.
Many Nevada ranches are operations which act responsibly, in a progressive agricultural manner with advances in animal and crop science in mind and under an ethic of sustainability for land water, and animal resources that are at the cutting edge of agricultural science.
The world needs examples of sustainability that protect scarce resources while still utilizing those resources for the benefit of mankind. Ranches in the Great Basin can provide many examples of how the world can look when competition for resources is replaced with cooperative use and a recognition that these operations are necessary for the future of the planet.
Use of rangelands by livestock in otherwise harsh climates is going to be a necessary focus for scientists, political leaders, opinion influencers, educators, and other decision makers as we make our way to the next century.
This story should be told over and over until people realize how important you are.
I’ll see you soon.
By Joseph Guild