Why methane continues to be the cattle industry's biggest climate change challenge

CBC Alberta and Saskatchewan have teamed up for a new pilot series on weather and climate change on the prairies. Meteorologist Christy Climenhaga will bring her expert voice to the conversation to help explain weather phenomena and climate change and how it impacts everyday life.

When Canadians picture the prairie landscape, fields of grazing beef cattle likely come to mind.

According to Statistics Canada, as of January 2020 Alberta had 40 per cent of the national herd (which numbers 11.2 million head). Saskatchewan followed at nearly 20 per cent, with Ontario third at 14 per cent. 

That makes the beef industry's role in climate change a contentious topic on the prairies.

So how does the industry contribute to climate change? How do we compare to the rest of the world? And what is being done to arrest the rise in emissions — in particular methane?

Cattle affect our climate in negative and positive ways. The positive impact lies in pastureland. 

"About 80 per cent of the feed that's fed to Canadian cattle is forage, which is of feed or food that's not really utilized by humans," says Tim McAllister, a principal research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. 

"And in those forage systems, there's a lot of carbon that's sequestered in the ground in the form of the roots and the grasses that grow in those areas. So that represents a real significant carbon store."

But the negative impact is significant. The cattle industry contributes carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide from manure, cropland, fertilizers and other production. 

The greenhouse gas we hear the most about though is methane. 

Methane is a by-product of digestion. When cattle breathe or belch, methane is released into the atmosphere. 

Enteric methane is a short-lived greenhouse gas, remaining in the atmosphere for about 12 years before breaking down as opposed to carbon dioxide which remains for hundreds or thousands of years, but it is much more potent in terms of warming.

Enteric methane across Canada contributes 3.3 per cent of our total greenhouse gas budget, says Karen Beauchemin, a researcher with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, who studies beef cattle nutrition and the environment. 

"In Canada, most of our greenhouse gases, of course, are from the use of fossil fuels," Beauchemin says, "so it's relatively small.