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Energy, Land and Feed Constraints on Beef Production in the 80's^{1 ,2,}

Colorado State University, Fort Collins 80523

Abstract

Energy from fossil fuels that is used in beef production is used predominantly for production of feed; thus, any significant energy conservation program in the industry must be directed toward alternative feed supplies requiring less energy input. Less use of energy in feed production, however, dictates more extensive use of land, which is incompatible with the increased demands that recreation and urbanization are expected to share upon the land in the 1980's. Substitution of energy for human and animal labor in agriculture is readily acknowledged, but it is not generally recognized that industrialized agriculture represents the use of energy to replace land, because inputs are concentrated upon smaller acreages of the more fertile land to produce higher yields. Energy costs are at present a small fraction of the cost of production, but this fraction is increasing more rapidly than any other factor of production. Therefore, the use of biomass to produce renewable energy such as alcohol for fuel may pose the greatest source of competition for beef production in the future. The 10-year cattle cycle can be expected to repeat itself in the 1980's with the result that resource requirements and associated energy impacts together with reduced profits will create strains on the industry. Escalating energy costs combined with other factors are likely to result in lower per capita supplies of beef than were present at the peak of the previous cattle cycle in 1975.

¹ Invited paper presented at the 71st Annu. Meet, of the ASAS, July 30, 1979, Univ. of Arizona, Tucson.

² The research on which much of this paper is based owes much to the assistance of former graduate students including John Blanchard, John Combs, Barry Hobson, Carl Old, Dave Rossiter, Terry Yorks and John Young.

³ Dept. of Anim. Sci