CALF_News_August_September_2021

23 CALF News • August | September 2021 • www.calfnews.net gases being released into the atmosphere. Problem is, GWP100 only considers the amount of methane produced. It doesn’t account for the fact that methane is recycled in the 10-year carbon cycle. To remedy that, scientists at Oxford University developed GWP* or GWP Star. This formula takes into account both the production and destruction of meth- ane in regard to actual global temperature change.“These colleagues from Oxford estimated that the current way we are quantifying methane (GWP100) overes- timates the impacts of methane by a factor of four,”Mitloehner told CLA members. Game changer. Cattle can change the game even more, Mitloehner maintains. Here’s how. In California, regulators mandated that dairies achieve a 40 percent reduc- tion in methane by 2030. But rather than using the big stick of regulatory punishment, they dangled a carrot of financial incentive. Dairies are paid $200 per ton of CO2 captured. WILL EATING LESS RED MEAT REALLY SAVE THE WORLD? Short answer: No. “If the entire United States, 330 million people, were to go vegan, we would reduce the carbon footprint of this country by 2.6 percent. One less day a week for the entire United States would reduce our carbon footprint by 0.3 percent” That’s what Dr. Frank Mitloehner, greenhouse gas guru at the University of California Davis, told members of the Colorado Livestock Association during the group’s recent annual convention. “No, it’s not nothing. It’s something, but I think everyone would agree it’s quite minor indeed.” Instead, he says the main contributing environmental harm the food system causes is food waste. “We’re wasting about 40 percent of all the food produced in this country,” he said. That’s primarily food that’s thrown away instead of being eaten. It decomposes in landfills and produces methane. In fact, landfills and fossil fuel combustion are by far and away the main causes of greenhouse gasses in the United States. Interestingly, about 40 percent of food produced in developing countries is also wasted. But that typically happens before it reaches the consumer, thanks to politics, transportation issues caused by poor infrastructure, lack of processing and other factors, Mitloehner said.  Frank Mitloehner, Ph.D. Photo courtesy www.ucdavis.edu . Still feeding sulfate trace minerals? How distasteful. www.micro.net | (317) 486-5880 1 Wiebusch. 2015. JAM. 2 Caramalac et al. 2017. J. Anim. Sci. 95:1739-1750. 3 Micronutrients trial #2017BC106USCZM. IntelliBond ® is a registered trademark of Micronutrients, a Nutreco company. © 2020 Micronutrients USA, LLC. All rights reserved. Smart minerals, smart nutrition... smart decision Calves prefer the taste of supplements with IntelliBond ® more than 2 to 1 vs. sulfate trace minerals. 1-3 Did you know cattle have 25,000 taste buds? That makes them extra-sensitive to the bad taste of free metals from sulfate trace minerals in the ration, and causes them to consume less feed. But when you feed IntelliBond ® trace minerals instead, calves keep eating. Studies show calves prefer supplements that include IntelliBond ® more than 2 to 1 vs. sulfate trace minerals . 1-3 Ask your nutritionist about the tastier trace mineral option. Learn more at micro.net/species/beef. Continued on page 31 