The productivity and environmental impact of an innovative quality-oriented production system for beef products derived from offspring of the organic dairy sector

Summary

This study aims at developing an innovative organic beef production system that generates a variety of beef products derived from male offspring of dairy cows. The system must ensure high and consistent meat quality, enhance consumer satisfaction and support a compelling narrative, involving calves raised with foster cows on pasture, followed by grazing on permanent grasslands post-weaning. The average
carbon footprint of the three beef products was 18.6 kg CO2-eq/kg of carcass. Consequently, consumers would need to eat 57 g of beef or less from this system to match the carbon footprint of 100 g of conventionally, intensively produced beef. The hypothesis is that consumers, due to the overall concept of this system, will reduce their overall meat consumption – embracing a ‘less is more’ approach – to offset the higher climate impact per kg of beef associated with this organic system compared to more intensively produced conventional beef.