AgNext Faculty Lead Sustainability Conversations at National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Convention

Dr. Kim Stackhouse-Lawson hosts "Cattle Chats" with colleague Dr. Lily Edwards-Callaway. Photo by Jenn Rieskamp
Spectators listen as Dr. Stackhouse-Lawson co-hosts "Cattle Chats" and talks about sustainability and animal welfare. Photo by Jenn Rieskamp
Dr. Sara Place answers questions regarding sustainability and climate neutrality in the agricultural industry. Photo by Jenn Rieskamp

Last week, AgNext team members attended the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA)’s Cattle Industry Convention in New Orleans – the oldest and largest in convention in the country for the beef business. The week-long conference brings together a broad swath of cattle industry partners and serves as the annual gathering and conference for members of the cattle industry. Throughout the week, both Dr. Stackhouse-Lawson and Dr. Place presented and engaged in a number of media opportunities.  

Cattle Chats at NCBA

“Cattle Chats” are short 20-minute drop-in presentations that are held on the NCBA Trade Show floor. The idea behind these short educational programs is to provide listeners with easy access to industry issues in a format that is quick and informative for attendees.    

Dr. Stackhouse-Lawson shared the stage with Colorado State University’s animal health and welfare expert, Dr. Lily Edwards-Callaway. In their discussion, they focused on the critical intersections of sustainability, animal health and well-being.   

Dr. Stackhouse-Lawson emphasized the importance of looking at welfare impacts on the entire system, including animal behavior and animal handling practices. “In every operation, there are tons of opportunities to find ways to improve based on your practices and the animals in your herd,” Stackhouse-Lawson said.  

An example of how producers can focus on both quality and animal welfare is receiving their Beef Quality Assurance training. This training emphasizes the importance of producing a high-quality product while also maximizing animal welfare. At AgNext, Dr. Stackhouse-Lawson requires students, faculty and staff to complete the Beef Quality Assurance training as part of their standard onboarding procedures before working with cattle.    

“Cattle care is part of your value proposition. You should be intentional about including it in your sustainability plan,” Dr. Edwards-Callaway said. “That’s the beauty of our disciplines — profitability is not disconnected from sustainability.” 


NCBA’s Sustainability Forum

Each year during the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association hosts the Sustainability Forum and invites a variety of producers and experts to speak on sustainability and offer insight on sustainability in the cattle industry.  This year, Dr. Sara Place, served on this panel elevating that many producers are already engaging in sustainable practices in the cattle industry, the importance of assessing trade-offs across the entire system and the need to ensure producer profitability at every step of the supply chain.   

Dr. Place also talked about how AgNext has advanced research efforts in enteric methane research including the creation of the industry-supported Climate-Smart Research Facility. She also centered producer profitability and trade-offs during her discussion, too.  Dr. Place then addressed how profitability plays a role in making these trade-off decisions, “We can have balance here by focusing on efficiency and using resources more wisely by asking ourselves these questions: ‘what are the implications and what are the costs?” 

She also suggested that there are steps that producers can take and are already taking to reduce methane in ways they may not be aware of. “We already do things to reduce methane.  The cattle finishing phase cuts methane significantly. The more fiber in a diet, the more methane is typically produced. Feeding rations in feedlot systems tend to be higher in grain, and as a result, produce less methane,” Dr. Place said. 

Dr. Place closed the panel discussion by addressing the need for more sustainability research and how researchers at AgNext will continue to move the needle on this area, “We’re not going to just fall into this path of climate neutrality– we must find new technology to be able to hit this aggressive goal,” Dr. Place said, stressing the importance of industry-focused efforts to ensure accurate benchmarking of enteric methane emissions.  

Rebecca Crook

Rebecca Crook

Undergraduate Communications Intern

Jenn Rieskamp

Jenn Rieskamp

Manager of Communications​

Erica Giesenhagen

Erica Giesenhagen

Communication and Administrative Coordinator