Americas Conservation Ag Movement

Give It a Name: Family Ranch Adds Value to Common Practice with New Beef Label

Thu, 18 May 2023 13:46:06 GMT

For fifth-generation rancher, Jaclyn Wilson, raising cattle is nothing new, and her family’s traditions and dedication to the industry run deep. However, what started over 130 years ago as a family homestead in northwestern Nebraska has quite literally stretched far beyond what may have been imagined back in 1888.

(Farm Journal)

While many of the daily ranching tasks for Jaclyn and her father, Blaine, are similar to those of past generations, the family’s operation, Wilson Flying Diamond Ranch near Lakeside, Neb., has continued to keep up with the cattle industry’s best practices, innovation and technology.

A predominantly Red Angus and Red Angus/Simmental composite operation, the Wilsons can be found tending to their spring and fall calving cow-calf herds, their long yearlings and the Flying Diamond Beef program.

Direct-to-Consumer Beef Business

Like many beef producers who initiated a direct-to-consumer component to their cattle operations in recent years, the Wilsons capitalized on the opportunity to share their beef with consumers in 2019.

(Farm Journal)

Over the last few years, the business has grown to ship all across the U.S. using ground and air transportation. However, simply marketing their family’s beef as a ranch-raised product was not where they stopped.

Seeing the push towards environmental stewardship, the Wilsons took their beef business one step further.

“We all know that ranchers are the original conservationists, right?” says Jaclyn. “I think every rancher knows that. Surprisingly, a lot of consumers don’t understand that concept because they’re getting drowned out by the media saying cattle are harming the environment, etc.”

In late April, the Wilsons launched their special Envirosmart Beef Label, which is currently in the trademark process.

“What we’re really trying to do here is we’re trying to use a combination of genomics and technology in order to really focus on some of that environmental impact that we’re having. Because I love our Sandhills operation, and I know it’s better now than it was 135 years ago,” Jaclyn adds.

(Farm Journal)

What is Envirosmart Beef?

The program focuses on three main concepts including:

Human wellbeing – This includes bettering the beef and non-beef community, including educating consumers, working to help with mental health, and utilizing interns and teaching future generations.

Animal wellbeing – This refers to doing the best for the animals by implementing animal health and wellbeing management practices.

Environmental wellbeing – This focuses on taking care of the land, including the use of grazing rotation systems, identifying plant species and plant diversity, as well as looking at wildlife populations.

Jaclyn notes that since the ranch already utilizes these practices, it was time to give it a name.

Along with following the three concepts, cattle gaining the family’s official Envirosmart Beef Label must be tested through the Neogen’s Feeder Identity Program. Using a genomic sample of the animal, along with initial weights from when the animal enters the feeding facility and ration information, an “optimal days on feed” determination is made for each individual animal.

“So, the goal is that we’re able to pinpoint better when those cattle will reach their peak performance,” Jaclyn explains. “Which, surprisingly, for us, we found out that it was significantly fewer days than what we were feeding cattle.”

Jaclyn says before implementing this practice, 1550 lbs. was considered her “ideal out weight.” However, following the feeder identity program, the optimal finishing weights of their cattle were found in the 1400 lbs. range.

“In theory, the thought process is, and they’re working on this research to prove it, but in theory, for every so many days you feed above the [optimal weight], you’re adding to your carbon footprint,” Jaclyn explains. “So, it hopes that if we can make feeding more efficient and utilize genomic [testing] to reach that optimal peak performance for that animal, that animal can go to harvest faster, be more efficient, and at the same time maybe we can reduce some of that carbon footprint.”

(Farm Journal)

Value-Added Beef

As Jaclyn explains, all the cattle on their operation would qualify to be part of their program. However, it’s the genomic testing that sets their two product lines—Classic and Envirosmart—apart.

Since launching the brand on Earth Day, Jaclyn says the Envirosmart option has predominately traveled to the east and west coasts.

The Wilsons have been able to capitalize on the specific consumer preference and add a premium to their “green label” boxes—that more than pays for the animal’s genomic test to be part of the program.

(Farm Journal)

Jaclyn says that the niche program has been a way to expose more consumers to how beef is raised.

“I think it’s a win-win for the industry in general, because it’s able to get a story across that ranchers out there are doing the right thing in terms of land and livestock management. It gives us more exposure to some of those people that might not have a clue as they’ve never bought beef outside of a grocery store,” Jaclyn explains.

More information about the Wilson family’s Flying Diamond Beef Envirosmart Beef Label and their family’s ranch can be found on their website— www.flyingdiamondbeef.com . Jaclyn can also be found @FDGenetics on Twitter.

(Farm Journal)

4 Things To Know About Cattle And Their Impact on Sustainability

Fri, 25 Jun 2021 21:05:17 GMT

Sara Place likes to say that beef is the original plant-based meat. “I think it’s important for us to remember the power of ruminants and how amazing these critters are,” says Place, Ph.D., chief sustainability officer at Elanco.

(Farm Journal)

During a presentation at the 2021 Alltech ONE Ideas Conference, Place addressed sustainability and beef production. She says the topic is complex, and one reason for that is because people have different values.

“One person may prioritize animal welfare above an environmental footprint; another may prioritize the affordability of food above all other issues,” she explains. “It’s not that one person is right or wrong, it’s just the reality that this is the challenge we’re dealing with in a pluralistic society when it comes to sustainability.”

With that perspective in mind, Place addressed four common questions she hears from consumers.

1. With regard to resource competition, are livestock eating what could be food for humans?

She says yes, in part, but not as much of the total global feed ration as many people think.

According to analysis of research by The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), about 14% of what livestock consume globally, mainly in the form of grains, could be eaten by humans directly. However, 86% of feedstuffs livestock eat are made up primarily of forages that cannot be consumed in a direct manner by people.

(Farm Journal)

“That’s really the headline—ruminants are able to upcycle, taking something with little or no value and upgrading those plants into higher value products,” she says. “That’s what livestock in general, and especially ruminants, excel at in the food system.”

Because the majority of the feed resources used to generate grain-finished beef in the United States is not in competition with the human food supply, and the protein value of beef to humans is 2.63 times greater than corn grain, the U.S. grain-finished beef system is generating more high-quality protein for the human populace than it is using.

“Cattle only need 0.6 kilograms of human edible protein in feed to make 1 kilogram of human animal protein and meat,” she says.

2. Is meat production taking place on land that should be used to grow crops?

Very little. The vast majority of land used for beef production is on land unsuitable for crop production.

“These are landscapes that are too arid, too rocky, and too steep for us to cultivate crops on directly,” she says.

While some groups and individuals would recommend pulling that land out of any agricultural use whatsoever, that move would likely be counterproductive.

Keeping a continuous cover of some type on highly erodible soils is a key to keeping erosion at bay, Place says.

“When ruminant animals are kept on those (fields), they allow for use of rotations and forage crops that can help improve soil health and water retention,” Place says.

Multifunctionality of land is another important consideration.

Place references the southern Great Plains as an area where multifunctionality works well. “Stocker cattle commonly graze winter wheat there until March or April. They are then removed, and the wheat is allowed to grow and be harvested for human food. In the milling process wheat provides byproducts that are then fed back to cattle, which are (then harvested for beef),” she says.

California almond “milk” and orange juice production are two other examples. Both provide byproducts that Place says are fed to dairy cattle that then produce milk and meat.

“For every 100 lb. of human food that comes from crops, 37 lb. of byproducts get generated,” she says. “That’s a global average, and a lot of those byproducts can be fed back to livestock.”

3. What is the impact of U.S. agriculture on greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs)?

About 9% to 10% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture, Place says. She notes that animal agriculture contributes about 4%, and crop production contributes about 5%.

“The single-largest source of emissions in the United States would be burning fossil fuels,” she says. “Somewhere around 75% of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions are because we are burning fossil fuels, and releasing CO2 (carbon dioxide) that was locked in the Earth’s crust for a long time.”

4. How big an issue is methane production in the beef industry, and how do we address it?

Place says cattlemen are creating more beef today with fewer emissions.

(Farm Journal)

“When cattle go to feedyards and eat a diet containing more fermentable carbohydrates like corn, they tend to reduce their methane emissions,” Place says.

“They’re more feed efficient. And part of that efficiency is a result of not losing as many feed calories to methane; we’re capturing more of them in the animal,” she adds. “Essentially, we’re producing the same amount of beef today as in the mid-1970s, with a third fewer cattle.”

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Top Producer Summit: The State of Animal Agriculture

Wed, 14 Apr 2021 20:19:14 GMT

How can livestock production be a part of the climate change solution? Temple Grandin and Frank Mitloehner discuss the advancements in sustainability seen across the animal agriculture industry and what it means for the future. Learn the importance of animals as part of good soil health, and how animal welfare is part of sustainability.

Read more coverage and watch other sessions from Top Producer Summit.