Keywords:

IMPACT, BEEF, ENVIRONMENTAL, PRODUCTION, CYCLE, FEEDLOT, EMISSION, REAR, SEMI-

INTENSIVE, STAGE

Digest:
...Despite the importance of beef production in Paraguay, an environmental impact
assessment of beef cattle production had not been previously conducted....
...At the same time, feed consumption in feedlots, despite its limited inclusion in
the overall rearing cycle, involves far from negligible environmental burdens,
which resulted in a greater impact intensity per animal unit present in the feedlot
stage....
...The feedlot stage also involved LUC-related impacts linked to some ingredients
of the purchased feed production, while such impacts do not occur in a grazing
system, provided that it happens on land that has not recently undergone use
change....
...Nevertheless, the semi-intensive fattening cycle, if improved in all its
productive aspects, may represent a balanced middle ground between an exclusively
grazing fattening cycle, given the high GHG emissions normally connected to it, and
an exclusively feedlot-based one, given the high resources consumption and the
various pollutant emissions connected to feed production and supply...