Are cattle a secret weapon for taking on California wildfires? That’s the headline of a recent article in Beef Magazine, which summarized a new study published in the journal Sustainability.

“Researchers, including a cohort from University of California, Davis, set out to calculate the greenhouse gas emissions of cows consuming vegetation that would otherwise burn in wildfires. Then they estimated the GHG emissions that would result should that forage be untouched and therefore, consumed by fire, eventually comparing the two.”

The results found that it’s better to have cattle eat the grassland than let the wildfires burn it. It’s not a huge difference in methane emissions, but it’s yet one more benefit that cattle provide to us.

To read the Beef Magazine article, click here.

To read the paper published in Sustainability, click here.

Interested in learning more about the role livestock play in regards to greenhouse gases and climate change? Read this recap from CFGA’s 2023 Conference.