Columbian ranchers aim to prove beef production can be good for planet

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00:00Cattle farming for beef production has been frowned upon by environmentalists and conservationists

00:08for the tremendous volume of methane gas discharged into the atmosphere from cattle dung. Likewise,

00:15forests have to be cut down to make way for cattle pasture and grazing. But a cattle ranch

00:21in northern Colombia is showing beef production can yield much lower greenhouse gas emissions

00:26and achieve sustainable cattle ranching as VOA's Austin Landis reports.

00:34By the time Cesar Mestra rides up on his horse each morning, these 100 cows are waiting for

00:39him. Behind this fence, they know what's on the menu. Fresh, tall, green grass, untouched

00:49for nearly a month.

00:51It's like they already understand you. They also have a sort of schedule. They already

00:55know that it's time for you to move them and all you have to do is open the gate.

01:00While most ranches have cattle roam a few big pastures, this one is carved into 120

01:06small ones. Cows move to a new section every day. It's called intensive rotational grazing.

01:14This fresh grass has less fiber than the eaten down stems. Research shows when cows eat this,

01:21they produce up to 30% less planet warming methane gas. Mestra says ranchers benefit

01:28too.

01:29I used to work with traditional grazing and this farm, the performance it's had, especially

01:35in terms of the number of animals and in weight, is superior to what we managed before.

01:41These cows gain up to 800 grams of weight per day, compared to the 420 gram average

01:48in Colombia. Only about 5% of ranches in Colombia raise cattle this way. Owner Michael Robin

01:55says his neighbors are skeptics.

01:58They were saying I was crazy because that's not the way that it's done in this area and

02:03most people just don't want to take the time to put in new fences, to put in water.

02:09This method takes more effort up front, but Robin says you can see the difference compared

02:14to browner pastures next door.

02:18The result? All these tall grasses and trees capture carbon dioxide, another greenhouse

02:24gas. Luis Alfonso Giraldo researches ranching methods at Colombia's national university.

02:30He's studying Robin's farm to determine its carbon footprint. He uses this device on the

02:36cow to measure methane emissions.

02:42We subtract the emissions from the capture to get a greenhouse gas balance. And at that

02:47balance equals zero, it means that the cattle farm is carbon neutral.

02:53Intensive rotational grazing has great potential in Colombia, he says, where it's warm year-round.

03:00How do we continue eating beef, but producing it in a way more friendly to the environment,

03:06reducing the methane?

03:07The trees maintained on the property also preserve natural habitats. Howler monkeys,

03:13turtles, birds and dung beetles thrive here. Robin says beef production doesn't have to

03:20be a major polluter.

03:22Come take a look. You can see this, when you go and see this, it makes sense.

03:28Studies elsewhere have found mixed results when they looked at how these methods affect

03:32a ranch's carbon footprint. As he studies this farm, Giraldo believes it's carbon neutral

03:39or even carbon positive, which would be a net gain for the earth.

03:44Austin Landis, VOA News, Monteria, Colombia.

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