The Ontario Beef Industry has and continues to improve its production efficiency and its impact on the environment.

With the Ontario population expected to increase dramatically over the next twenty to thirty years the need to increase production efficiency will continue.

Advances in animal production have enabled producers and the industry to produce more with less resources and provided the opportunity to reduce the impact on the environment. This report looks at the changing face of the beef industry, its use of renewable resources, and its present and future impact on Ontario, its population, and the environment.

The Ontario beef industry has seen dramatic changes in the last few decades in relation to the number of animals, the number and size of farms, and their location.

Conversions of grains and forages to meat, have improved significantly over the past several decades. A global estimate of the conversion rate of human-edible feed to human food showed 74 million tons of human-edible protein produced 54 million tons of human food protein.

In 1951, 15.3% of Ontario’s population lived on farms, while by 1996, only 2.1% lived on farms.

In 1996 there were approximately 5.42 million horses, cattle, sheep, and pigs on Ontario farms, down over 10% from the numbers recorded in 1900. In 1900, there were 1.1 cows and calves in Ontario for every human. In 2001, there were only 0.17 cows and calves for every human.

A key component to the increased efficiency in beef production relates to improved field crop and forage yields. Grain corn yield per acre has more than doubled since 1950.

The beef industry as well as other livestock and poultry industries utilize the by-products of the food and beverage industries to the betterment of the environment.

Research in the areas of grain modification, phase feeding, ingredient and mineral level changes, and more precise feed formulations is being conducted to improve nutrient utilization.

Biotechnology including genetically engineered crops, new vaccines, and genetic manipulation of the cattle genome can accelerate progress of conventional beef science.

In Canada, wetlands are one of the largest contributors of methane emissions (about 83%) while cattle contribute about 3.1%. Research is underway at several Canadian research centres to cut methane production by beef cattle.

Ontario has about 0.2 cattle per tillable acre. Manure production by animal agriculture has decreased by 7.5% between 1986 and 1996.

Declining beef numbers and improved production efficiency have led to a decline in water consumption by the beef industry.

Improvements in calving rate has led to a considerable increase in the pounds of beef produced per cow and heifer.

The backgrounding of cattle leads to less methane production per unit gain and less potential impact on the environment.