Finding Balance and Seeking Progress: Sustainability Forum Highlights

If one thing is evident, it is that sharing our story is a powerful tool. As cattle producers, we know that caring for our animals, land and resources is crucial, and our commitment to continual improvement is what positions the beef industry so uniquely in the sustainability conversation.

NCBA formed its sustainability goals with environmental, economic and social factors in mind. These three pillars of sustainability contribute to the success we have in not only producing a high-quality, nutrient-dense product but also in communicating that message with consumers around the world.

This point was expressed during the 2023 Sustainability Forum, an event sponsored by Elanco, which was held during the Cattle Industry Convention and NCBA Trade Show in New Orleans in February. The forum was moderated by Colin Woodall, NCBA CEO, who was joined by four panelists that span the beef supply chain as producers and various other stakeholders. The panelists included Tom McDonald, senior vice president of environmental affairs and sustainability for Five Rivers Feeding; John Ferry, producer at JY Ferry & Son, Inc.; Sara Place, Ph.D., associate professor and feedlot systems specialist at Colorado State University; and Drake Yon, producer at Yon Family Farms.

Woodall set the tone of the event with this simple notion. As cattle producers, sustainability is an opportunity we have to capitalize on. That opportunity includes the ability to continue to improve, to get more efficient and to be better at what we are doing with animal welfare, employee safety and well-being, and stewardship of our resources.

Social Sustainability

Often, when we hear talk of sustainability, it is associated with the environment. However, research indicates the contrary. Consumers connect sustainability with animal welfare, which not only was one the first topics addressed by the panel, but also links closely to NCBA’s social sustainability goal that works to enhance trust in cattle producers as responsible stewards of their animals and resources.

Ferry best addressed animal welfare with the offer of an old saying: “It’s the eye of the master that fattens the calf.”

As Ferry explains it, you must read your cattle and recognize the different ways they communicate. If you can see what your cattle are telling you, then you will be able to respond appropriately and make smart decisions that contribute to your operation’s sustainability.

Yon echoed this sentiment saying, “As ranchers, we all know cattle care is paramount. If we are going to have success, we must have a comfortable cow… we focus on things that are basic to us, but the general consumer, might not understand — keeping [cattle] out of the mud in the wintertime and having shade available in the summertime. Those needs are different across the country, which is the cool thing about a cow — they can adapt to so many other places.”

While the needs of cattle may vary across the United States, producers are aligned on the notion of quality animal care and worker safety and well-being. The Beef Checkoff-funded Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) program is a great example of this with more than 560,300 active BQA certifications as of Jan. 1, 2023.

Despite various communication barriers, cattle producers are able to find common ground with consumers in regard to animal welfare and workplace safety, and that is best expressed through the BQA slogan, “The right way is the only way.”

Environmental Sustainability

“When you take care of the cattle, the environmental systems take care of themselves,” McDonald shared.

With the web between environmental, economic and social sustainability growing more and more interlaced, this idea that a good practice in one area influences another is as true as ever.

When it comes to the environment, there are an increasing number of perceptions that influence the way we can do business. As Woodall put it, climate change is best addressed with cattlemen and cattlewomen who share their stories and change the perception.

Aside from his work as a beef producer, Ferry’s family operation, JY Ferry & Son, Inc., was recognized as the national recipient of the 2021 Environmental Stewardship Award, which serves as a great platform for sharing a positive story about how cattle and a clean environment go hand in hand.

Part of what makes the Ferry family’s story so captivating is their willingness to invest time and resources in new strategies and technologies. JY Ferry & Son, Inc. is located in Utah with wetlands on their property. An invasive grass called phragmites is known in the area for destroying the wetlands and decreasing habitat space for birds and other wildlife. The Ferry family began utilizing cattle to mitigate the intrusive vegetation and now receive inquiries from conservation and hunting groups alike. Their storytelling starts here.

“We have a bunch of tools in our toolbox, and one of those tools is grazing,” Ferry shared.

In terms of reaching NCBA’s climate neutrality goal, grazing is a key driver in progress. Place helped shed light on this by discussing the different components that go into our industry’s elimination of climate warming contributions.

“Can we increase soil carbon sequestration — the amount of carbon we pull out of the air and put into the soil? That is one of the levers the U.S. cattle industry can pull,” Place explained. “Methane emission is also a huge opportunity for the cattle industry when it comes to climate neutrality because methane is short lived in the atmosphere, and so anything that we do from a management perspective that reduces methane has a bigger benefit from a climate perspective.”

According to Place, the practices that beef producers implement today are already positively contributing to methane reduction. By investing in new technologies and research, such as feed additives, our industry is taking steps in the right direction.

“From a practical standpoint and considering what [producers] can do, going back to the basics of animal husbandry and being productive is actually quite important,” Place said. “The faster we can get animals to harvest, the faster that we can grow animals and produce that nutrient-dense food for people, the better we do with things like reproductive efficiency of a cow — that actually all has an impact on climate neutrality.”

Economic Sustainability

While promoting investment in research and new technologies seems indisputable, there is one key factor that cannot be forgotten — money. Simply put, discussing animal welfare, employee safety and well-being, and environmental sustainability is not relevant without financial backing.

“We have to be profitable in order to have the resources to continue to make improvements. Profitability is what drives sustainability,” McDonald said.

Ensuring that operations and businesses are profitable means having the ability to demonstrate progress. The beef industry’s commitment is to a sustainable legacy, and that is not a stagnant commitment.

“Sustainability is not just to maintain,” Ferry shared. “It is to be proactive and be on the attack because there is always going to be a better philosophy, a better strategy, a better mousetrap out there that makes us more sustainable.”

The Three-Legged Stool

Sustainability is an increasingly complex topic both in and out of the beef industry. In part, that is the result of overlap between environmental, economic and social factors. Fortunately, NCBA’s sustainability goals place equal focus on ensuring balance amongst these three pillars, otherwise known as the three-legged stool of sustainability. Without one, the others fall short.

“Everybody wants to say sustainability is conservation and using less resources, and that is part of it,” Yon said. “But, it’s more about what you’re doing with the resources that you are using and how long can you do it for.”

In the end, as good stewards of land and livestock, it is the management decisions that contribute to positive outcomes, but it is the people that demonstrate progress.

At Yon Family Farms, finding balance on the three-legged sustainability stool means fostering a sustainable legacy, and as Yon shared, “For that next generation, it’s providing that atmosphere where they can come back if they want to and giving them the opportunity to take it where their passion is.”

That is what sustainability is all about.