Table 8.

Resource use and greenhouse gas emissions associated with producing 1 × 10⁶ kg of HCW beef from baseline Brazilian beef systems (no implants) or with steroid hormone implants at low, medium and high levels of performance enhancement

	No implants (NI)	Performance enhancement with implants
		Low (LI)	Medium (MI)	High (HI)
Animals a
Total breeding cattle, head	6.49 × 103	6.28 × 103	6.20 × 103	6.12 × 103
Total preweaned calves, head	4.57 × 103	4.43 × 103	4.37 × 103	4.31 × 103
Total replacement heifers, head	3.41 × 103	3.31 × 103	3.26 × 103	3.22 × 103
Total breeding bulls, head	0.936 × 103	0.906 × 103	0.894 × 103	0.882 × 103
Total feedlot cattle, head	1.01 × 103	0.979 × 103	0.966 × 103	0.954 × 103
Total finishing farm cattle, head	9.07 × 103	8.79 × 103	8.67 × 103	8.55 × 103
Total cattle, head	2.55 × 104	2.47 × 104	2.44 × 104	2.40 × 104
Resource use
Feedstuffsb, kg	1.96 × 108	1.81 × 108	1.75 × 108	1.70 × 108
Drinking water, L	1.27 × 108	1.16 × 108	1.12 × 108	1.08 × 108
Land, ha	2.19 × 104	2.02 × 104	1.95 × 104	1.89 × 104
N fertilizer, kg	10.9 × 103	9.40 × 103	8.82 × 103	8.26 × 103
P fertilizer, kg	9.68 × 103	8.33 × 103	7.81 × 103	7.31 × 103
K fertilizer, kg	9.21 × 103	7.92 × 103	7.42 × 103	6.94 × 103
Pesticides, kg	6.14 × 104	5.67 × 104	5.48 × 104	5.30 × 104
Fossil fuels, MJ	10.4 × 105	9.04 × 105	8.53 × 105	8.03 × 105
Waste outputs
N excretion, kg	5.55 × 105	4.97 × 105	4.76 × 105	4.57 × 105
P excretion, kg	5.33 × 104	4.77 × 104	4.57 × 104	4.38 × 104
Manure, kg	1.63 × 108	1.47 × 108	1.41 × 108	1.35 × 108
Gas emissions
Methane, kg	1.22 × 106	1.11 × 106	1.07 × 106	1.03 × 106
Nitrous oxide, kg	8.73 × 103	7.82 × 103	7.50 × 103	7.20 × 103
Greenhouse gases from livestock, kg CO2e	4.42 × 107	4.01 × 107	3.87 × 107	3.73 × 107
Greenhouse gases from cropping, kg CO2e	1.24 × 106	1.24 × 106	1.24 × 106	1.24 × 106
Greenhouse gases from manure application, kg CO2e	1.35 × 106	1.21 × 106	1.16 × 106	1.11 × 106
Greenhouse gases from transport, kg CO2e	5.65 × 104	5.18 × 104	5.00 × 104	4.83 × 104
Total greenhouse gases, kg CO2e	4.69 × 107	4.25 × 107	4.10 × 107	3.95 × 107
Total greenhouse gases kg CO2e per kg HCW beef	46.9	42.5	41.0	39.5

^a Actual cattle numbers (head), not pro-rated for time spent in the system.

^b Freshweight.