Livestock production is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. The number of large, factory farms is increasing as smaller family farms decline. Factory farming practices produce high volumes of waste and emissions. Ruminant animals like cattle are significant methane emitters due to their digestive process. Deforestation to create new pastures also releases large amounts of carbon dioxide. To reduce these effects, options include increasing carbon sequestration through forest conservation, improving production efficiency, optimizing animal diets, and carefully managing manure storage.

1. EFFECT OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON
LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION
Presenter
Sabal Pokharel
1st sem, BVSc & AH
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2. Discussion over
•What is the current state of livestock production?
•What is climate change and its effects?
•What is the casual relationship between livestock and
climate change?
•How can we reduce these effects?
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3. Livestock Production
•Livestock refers to domesticated animals
intentionally reared in an agricultural setting to
produce food or other products.
•Livestock are raised in agricultural settings such
as factory farms, family farms, and cattle
ranches.
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4. Livestock Production Summary
•Farms are getting bigger
•Number of farms are decreasing
•Factory Farms are taking over the market and pushing
out family farms
•Factory farms have high production rates and lots of
waste
•Over 9 billion slaughtered, doesn’t include dairy
producing animals!
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5. Climate Change
How climate change occurs?
•Greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere prevent
heat from escaping the atmosphere. It causes change
in climate.
Human caused greenhouse gas emissions account for
much of the problem
•Carbon Dioxide (CO2)
•Methane (CH4)
•Nitrous Oxide (N2O)
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6. Effects of Climate Change
•Rising sea levels
•Shrinking glaciers
•Thawing of permafrost
•Trees blooming earlier
•Changes in range and distribution of plants
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7. Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and
feeding livestock
•Fertilizer is used to grow crops fed to livestock
•Large amounts of CO2 is emitted from the burning of
fossil fuels to make this fertilizer
•There is an estimated 40 million Tonnes of CO2 emitted
annually from this practice
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8. CO2 and Deforestation
•Deforestation is essential to create land for pasture and
growing feed
•When forests are harvested or burned large amounts of
CO2 are released into the atmosphere.
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9. Methane
Enteric Fermentation
•Refers to the digestive process in animals in which
microbes ferment food consumed by the animals
•Methane is a natural by-product of Enteric
Fermentation
•The amount of methane produced and excreted by the
animal depends on the animal’s digestive system as
well as the type of feed they consume
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10. Methane
Ruminant animals vs non-ruminant animals
•Ruminant animals (cattle, buffalo, sheep, goats, and
camels) are the major emitters of methane because of
their unique digestive process that occurs in a large
“fore-stomach”
•Non-ruminant animals (swine, horse) also emit
methane, but at smaller levels
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11. Methane
Feed quality and quantity effect the amount of methane
emitted
•Lower quality feed increases methane emissions
•Higher quantity of feed increases methane emissions
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12. Livestock’s Impact
•Livestock account for an estimated 9% of global CO2
emissions!
•Livestock account for an estimated 35-40% of global CH4
emissions!
•Livestock account for an estimated 65% of NO2 emissions!
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13. Mitigation Options
Carbon sequestration
•The EPA suggests carbon sequestration as a solution to
climate change. Carbon sequestration is the process in
which plants and trees absorb carbon from the
atmosphere.
•Deforestation and CO2 emissions
•Create incentives for forest conservation
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14. Mitigation Options
•Enteric Fermentation and CH4 emissions
•Increase production efficiency
•Decrease the number of animals
•Decrease the time they are emitting methane
•Increase nutrition
•Decreases the amount of methane produced
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15. Mitigation Options
Manure Management and CH4 and N2O emissions
•Be mindful of temperature, moisture levels, time of
storage, and other factors that lead to higher
emissions
•Give livestock easily digestable feed to control manure
contents.
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