CRSB releases second National Beef Sustainability Assessment

Jan 24, 2024

On January 15, 2024, the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (CRSB) released its second and highly anticipated National Beef Sustainability Assessment (NBSA) and Strategy report.

The assessment reflects three years of in-depth scientific analysis and highlights the Canadian beef sector’s progress between 2014 and 2021 on sustainability indicators like greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity, carbon storage, people’s health and safety, animal care, economic contributions and more.

Key environmental improvements include a 15 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions to produce 1 kg of beef (boneless and consumed) since 2014. The report also shows that land used for beef cattle production is estimated to store 1.9 billion tonnes of soil organic carbon, and with overall loss of habitat, Canadian beef farmers and ranchers play an important role in preserving intact critical habitat wildlife need for reproduction and feeding.

Source : Can Cattle

Video: 2026 T.K. Cheung Lecture in Animal Science - Dan Weary

T.K. Cheung Lecture in Animal Science: "Using science to assess and improve the welfare of dairy cattle"

Dan Weary is a Professor at the University of British Columbia. Dan did his BSc and MSc at McGill and Doctorate at Oxford before co-founding UBC’s Animal Welfare Program where he now co-directs this active research group. His research focuses on understanding the perspectives of animals and applying these insights to develop methods of assessing animal welfare and improving the lives of animals. His work has helped drive changes in practices (including the adoption of higher milk rations for calves and pain management for disbudding) and housing methods (including the adoption of social housing for pre-weaned calves). He also studies cow comfort and lameness, social interactions among cows, and interactions between cows, human handlers and technologies like automated millking systems that are increasingly used on farms. His presentation will outline key questions in cattle welfare, highlight recent UBC research addressing them, and showcase innovative methods for improving the lives of cattle and their caretakers.