Environmental impact assessment of beef production in a semi-intensive in Paraguay

A Paraguayan cattle farm was evaluated to explore the environmental performance of beef production in a semi-intensive system. The LCA method was applied with a “cradle-to-farm gate” perspective and 1 kg of Live Weight as the functional unit selected. Primary data referring to cropping and livestock systems’ inputs and outputs for the three-years from 2016 to 2018 were collected on site. Twelve different impact categories were evaluated. Cattle farming confirmed to be responsible for intensive GHG emissions (24.8 kg CO2 eq/kg LW), especially when it occurs predominantly on pasture. A trade-off has been identified between impact categories strongly affected by animal-related emissions (including climate change, acidification potential and eutrophication), occurring mostly on pasture, and others (toxicity-related categories, ozone and resources depletion) by feed production, despite its limited inclusion in the overall rearing cycle, almost exclusively during the finishing feedlot phase.