2. Today:
• What is ‘Sustainability’?
• Sustainability initiatives in Agriculture
• An example of a sustainable farm (model)
• If time permits – ‘token crop content’
– annual forages
3. Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef
www.grsbeef.org
Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef
www.crsb.ca
7. Motivation Continuum
…there are constraints
for our production
(biophysical, ecological,
economic, social).
…we need to better
communicate the
status quo.
We need to better, because…
8. A definition of Sustainable Agriculture
"Sustainable agriculture is the efficient production of
safe, high quality agricultural products, in a way that
protects and improves the natural environment, the
social and economic conditions of farmers, their
employees and local communities, and safeguards the
health and welfare of all farmed species.”
9. What is SAI Platform ?
Sustainable Agriculture Initiative
SAI Platform is the global initiative helping food and
drink companies to achieve sustainable production and
sourcing of agricultural raw materials.
10.
11. Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef
www.grsbeef.org
Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef
www.crsb.ca
13. 1
3
About the CRSC
Vision:
The Canadian Grains sector is recognized globally to
be economically viable, socially responsible, and a
leader in the adoption of environmentally
sustainable production practices.
14. Climate change impacts
Ontario’s performance:
̵ Better than the international
average
̵ Fully comparable to North
American average
Source: MacLeod, M., Gerber, P., Mottet, a, Tempio, G., Falcucci, a, Opio, C., …
Steinfeld, H. (2013). Greenhouse gas emissions from pig and chicken supply chains –
A global life cycle assessment.
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
World North America Ontario
kgCO2-eq/kgCWpork
Carbon footprint of industrial swine production
17. The Sustainable Farm and Food Initiative is being developed by a
coalition of Ontario farm organizations in collaboration with
representatives from the food and beverage sector, academia,
and non-government organizations.
The goal is to develop an understanding of the sector’s needs
through a consultation process that will include stakeholders
across the value chain. The long-term intent of the initiative is to
clarify and streamline sustainability initiatives by benchmarking
program equivalencies and harmonizing verification standards.
24. Nutrient Use – Two Site
Animal
Manure
Soil
Plant / Feed
Fertilizer
25. Livestock Effects
via Dissociated Feed Production
• Reduction of forages in rotations (grains more
easily mechanized)
• Soil erosion
• Nutrient depletion and accumulation
• Reduced biodiversity
• GHGs (soil carbon oxidation, fuel, N fertilizer)
• Footprint per gram animal protein amplified as
characterized by feed conversion
26. Presentation 2
Livestock Operations Rooted in
Sustainable Agronomics
Kassia (VanVeen) VandenBerg
Livestock Sustainability Outreach Project Lead
Undergraduate Student Experiential Learning Program
27. Project Purpose
• Original question: what is the environmentally viable
level and mix of livestock in Ontario?
• Livestock production in tonnes of protein
• Provide thought-provoking basis for the answer
• Using a theoretical farm
• Come at it from two perspectives
• Livestock feed requirements and manure output
• Ideal crop rotations and crop inputs
28. Project Concept
• Represent Ontario by 1000 acres
• Land class
• Ideal crop rotation
• Yields, convert to feed (tonnes)
• Four livestock species
• Feed consumption/year (tonnes)
• Manure output (nutrient profile vs crop
requirement)
• Bedding usage/species
• Measure livestock production in value of protein
production for each species
29. Model Farm Land Type
• GIS Data collection
• Categorized each county, chose top 90-
100% ag productive land counties
• Essex, Lambton, Kent, Elgin, Perth,
Middlesex, & Oxford
30. Farm Layout
• 25% marginal land
• 70% agricultural productive land
• 5% environmentally sensitive land
1000 Acre Breakdown
• MarginalLand:250 acres
• AgricultureProductiveLand:700acres
• EnvironmentallySensitiveLand:50acres
32. Environmentally Beneficial
Rotation
• Fours year forage
• Prevent erosion
• Water filtration
• Soil health
• Nitrogen supply for next crop
• Increasing diversity C-S-W compared to C-C or
C-S
• Increases average yields
• Assumed >3.5% organic matter
• Allow residue removal such as corn silage
fieldcropnews
35. Marginal Land & Total Acreage
• Planted 40% of 250 Marginal Land acres as
forage
• Grazed by cattle
36. Crop – Feed Linkages
• Convert each crop into tonnes
• Convert from tons to tonnes
• Standard bushel/tonne values
•
37. Beef - Cows
• Dry cows barn fed Dec-April
• 2.5% of their body weight (1400 lbs - 635
kg)
• Lactating cows pasture fed May-Nov
• including calf at side
• 5% of body weight (1400 lbs – 635 kg)
38. Beef - Young Stock & Feedlot
• Young stock fed same manner as cows
• 15-20% of cow numbers kept back
• Feedlot cattle on feed 145 days
• 2.25% of body weight consumed (1200 lbs – 545 kg)
39. Beef Yearly Feed Consumption
• 1 cow, 0.2 young stock, and 0.8 feedlot
44. Swine Yearly Feed Consumption
• 1 sow and 23.25 piglets (wean till market)
45. Meat Protein
• Dressing Percentage (DP)
• % of live animal as carcass
• Carcass Cutting Yield (CCY)
• % of carcass as meat
• Protein percentage of meat
ken’smeat
46. Milk Protein
• 9238 kg milk/year per cow
• 3% protein
• 277.14 kg protein yearly per cow
Telegraph.co.uk
47. Egg Protein
• 90% egg production
• 329 eggs per year
• 6 g protein per egg
• 1.971 kg protein yearly per layer
Telegraph.co.uk
48. Pairing Monogastrics & Ruminants
• Primary focus maximizing forages
• Cannot maximize all feed with just pairs
• Protein production can be high with pairs
despite crop usage
• Dairy & Swine, Beef & Broilers over 50 tonnes
• Need to maximize both values
• Groups of species
• Again, maximize forages first
55. Return to Mixed Farming? Yes and No
• This model accepts economies of scale are still
required
• There are crop and feed budget interactions that
cannot be ignored
• Achievable in alternative models:
– Multi-enterprise large farms
– Via crop allocation among independent farmers
– Any system that gets forages on all soils in the rotation
56. Today:
• What is ‘Sustainability’?
• Sustainability initiatives in Agriculture
• An example of a sustainable farm (model)
• If time permits – ‘token crop content’
– annual forages
57.
58.
59. Dry Yield
(0%
Moisture)
Total Digestible Nutrients
(TDN)
Energy
Content
Energy Yield
Harvested
Crop - tonne/ha - % - tonne/ha -
Barley 1.2 b 76.6 a 0.88 b
Oats (120 kg/ha) 2.4 a 74.4 a 1.80 a
Oats (80 kg/ha) 2.3 a 74.3 a 1.75 a
Oats + Peas 2.2 a 74.8 a 1.64 a
se++ 0.22 8.9 160.3
Table 1. Cereal crop variety and seeding rate effects on average
yield and TDN content harvested at boot stage with 50 kg-N/ha at
the Elora and Woodstock research station trials that evaluated fall
harvested cereals in 2013 and 2014 (Adapted from Deen et al.,
unpublished 2016).
Note: Results for dry yields, energy content and energy yields with differing superscripts and different fill
colour are statistically different.
60. Table 2. Cereal crop varieties in 2014 only, a year where plots included
triticale. Effects on average yield and TDN content harvested at boot
stage with 50 kg-N/ha at the Elora station evaluating fall harvested
cereals. (Adapted from Deen et al., unpublished 2016).
Crop
Dry Yield
(0% Moisture)
Total Digestible Nutrients (TDN)
Energy Content
Energy Yield
Harvested
- tonne/ha - % - tonne/ha -
Barley 1.3 d 76.7 a 0.99 d
Oats (120 kg/ha) 2.8 a,b 72.6 a 2.05 a,b
Oats (80 kg/ha) 2.9 a 73.5 a 2.15 a
Oats + Peas 2.5 b 73.5 a 1.86 b
Triticale 2.0 c 75.2 a 1.41 c
se++ 0.12 15.9 97.5
Note: Results for dry yields, energy content and energy yields with differing superscripts and different fill
colour are statistically different.
61.
62. Forage-After-Wheat Recipe:
80 kg per ha of oats seeded ASAP after wheat harvest
50 kg of N per ha
Pray for rain
Plan to harvest as silage by the end of October
Quality by maturity stage is not greatly affected by early
November, but likely will only make ‘boot’
63. Stage Average
Date
Yield
(0%
Moisture)
Total Digestible Nutrients (TDN)
Crop Stage Content Harvested
All Head - T/ha - - % - - T/ha -
Rye Head June 3 4.0 c 68.6 a 2.740 b
Triticale (Fridge) Head June 16 4.8 ab 63.3 c 2.968 ab
Triticale (Pika) Head June 16 5.2 a 64.9 bc 3.335 a
Wheat Head June 16 4.3 bc 67.6 ab 2.877 b
Rye Head
Rye Head June 3 4.0 a 68.6 b 2.740 a
Triticale (Fridge) Boot June 5 2.7 b 75.5 a 2.033 b
Triticale (Pika) Boot June 5 2.9 b 76.3 a 2.218 b
Wheat Boot June 6 2.6 b 77.6 a 1.985 b
Rye Boot
Rye Boot May 29 3.0 a 74.4 b 2.206 a
Triticale (Fridge) Flag May 31 2.0 b 78.7 a 1.524 b
Triticale (Pika) Flag May 31 2.3 ab 77.6 ab 1.742 ab
Wheat Flag June 1 1.9 b 77.1 ab 1.440 b
Table 3. Average yield, total digestible nutrient content and the stage
of development of spring harvested cereals on similar harvest dates
at the research station trials (2014-2015). Fertilizer N rate applied
was 50 kg-N/ha. (Adapted from Deen et al., unpublished 2016).
Note: Results for dry yields, energy content and energy yields with differing superscripts and different fill
colour are statistically different.
64. Advice to Producers: What can you do?
• Use nutrients and energy carefully
• Increase diversity in feed production and
improve field practices
– Crop rotation
• (eg Corn/Soy vs. Corn/Soy/Wheat/Forages)
– Advantageous timing of manures
• Assuming $$$ to be a proxy for carbon and
nutrients: be profitable!
65. Pasture Pasture
Pasture Pasture Pasture
Pasture Pasture Pasture
Hay
Hay
Hay Hay
Hay
Hay Hay
Hay
Other
Other
Other Other
Other
Other Other
Other
Wheat
Wheat Wheat
Wheat
Wheat
Wheat Wheat
Wheat
Corn
Corn
Corn
Corn
Corn
Corn
Corn
Corn
Soybeans
Soybeans
Soybeans
Soybeans
Soybeans
Soybeans Soybeans
Soybeans
0%
25%
50%
75%
100%
1976 1981 1986 1991 1996 2001 2006 2011
PercentofCropland+Pasture
Soybea
Corn
Wheat
Other
Hay
Pastur
