Beef Sustainability Supports Bottom Line

Colorado cattle producers discuss the link between sustainability and profitability

Sustainable ranching practices not only meet consumer demands, but they also support the bottom lines and longevity of cattle producers.

As customers look critically at the environmental impacts of agriculture, the beef community in particular has come into focus. For many ranchers, sustainability is more than a goal: it is a necessity.

“We are just trying to be sustainable from the economic side of things,” said Will Bledsoe, partner of Bledsoe Ranch, a fifth-generation cow-calf operation. “We steward the land as best we can, and therefore the sustainability on the economic side of things pays off.”

Bledsoes have been running commercial Red Angus cattle in the High Plains of Colorado since 1918. The family sustains their rangeland through rotational grazing, managing water resources to best distribute cattle, and closely regulating their stocking rates, Bledsoe said.

“All those things are good for the environment, but they are also good for the bottom line,” Bledsoe said. “Our family has been doing what we are doing for 102 years in the High Plains deserts.”

The only way ranchers stay in business is to care for their cattle, efficiently manage their land, and hope they get paid for it, said Kenneth Lewis, a sales representative for Winter Livestock.

“Cattle have transformed and they are more sustainable now than 15-20 years ago,” said Lewis, who is also a cow-calf producer. “The sustainability, the traceability, it’s all there.

“Ranchers provide a wholesome product. No question about it.”

Maintaining a multiple-generation ranch is a hard business, Lewis said, especially as profit margins have eroded.

“There are a lot of $680 per head averages,” said Lewis, who buys cattle throughout New Mexico, southern Colorado, and the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles. “That is pretty tough to take and everybody is trying to get $20 here and there.”

Cattle producers often seek financial sustainability by increasing their environmental sustainability, said Bledsoe, adding that caring for the land and natural resources has allowed his family’s operation to last more than a century.

“Ranchers aren’t of the mindset to cash in on one year,” Bledsoe said. “They want to cash in on the long term.”

Cultivating productive rangelands provides pasture for cattle, but it also means that Bledsoe Ranch is absorbing far more greenhouse gasses than it is emitting, Bledsoe said.

“The carbon offset we have on our range, forages and trees far offsets the greenhouse gases that cattle produce,” Bledsoe said. “There is no other industry that offsets their carbon like agriculture does.”

One way Bledsoe said he capitalized on consumer demand for sustainability and transparency is through Meet America, Inc., a beef and lamb wholesaler. Meet America advertises “local, dry-aged, tasty beef from animals raised by producers who are excellent stewards of their land and livestock,” according the organization’s Facebook page.

“People do want to know where their meat is coming from,” said Bledsoe, one of more than a dozen beef producers who are part to Meet America. “It is the healthiest and safest product in America. This is the most sustainable beef in the world.”

The U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef was formed to advance and support continuous improvements in sustainability across the U.S. beef value chain, according to their mission statement. Last year, the coalition created the U.S. Beef Industry Sustainability Framework to support sustainability assessments.

“We encouraged uptake and adoption of principles so individual companies and operations could improve their use of resources, their care for animals and their bottom line,” wrote Ben Weinhiemer, 2019-2020 USRSB chair, and Ashly McDonald, USRSB executive director, in the 2019 annual report. “The resource was the first of its kind, providing individual approaches to sustainability for each segment of the beef value chain.”

There is a niche market for branded sustainable beef, Lewis says, but he warns it is a small share of the market.

While Bledsoe Ranch is built upon sustainable principles, Bledsoe said he is nervous sustainability guidelines set by outside parties could be used to over-regulate the beef community.

“It will take care of itself as long as it doesn’t get pushed on the industry against our will,” Bledsoe said.

For most producers, sustainability means more than mere carbon sequestration and livestock management - it is the preservation of a lifestyle.

“This is beyond just cattle,” Lewis said. “You want to pass that on to the next generation so they can raise their family in the same way."

Perhaps selling that message is hardest of all, Lewis concludes. The beef value chain is complex, and most consumers aren’t aware of all the parts.

“You are trying to sell something that is really important for the cattle industry, really important for sustainability, and for the ranchers and small-town America, but you’ve got a hard job.”

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Article by Wade Yoder for OSU coursework.