Abstract
New Mexico (NM) has been identified as the state in the US that will be most adversely impacted by climate change and associated water stress. Roughly 92% of NM is rangeland, most of which is grazed by beef cattle. We calculated the blue (surface and ground) and green (precipitation) water footprints (WF) of NM beef cattle industry (cow-calf, backgrounding, and feedlot). This analysis indicated that the weighted average WF of NM beef cattle was 28,203 L/kgmeat. The majority of the WF was accounted for green water (82%; 23,063 L/kgmeat) used by rangeland forages. Blue water accounted for only 18% (5140 L/kgmeat) of the total beef WF estimate. The relative contribution of green vs. blue water varied significantly among the different phases of beef production. In cow-calf, green water accounted for 99.5% of the WF whereas blue water, accounted for 100% of beef WF during backgrounding and feedlot. Based on our estimate, NM cow-calf operations is about a third or a quarter of the blue water (m3/year) used to produce corn or wheat, and only 5% or less of the water used to produce cotton or hay. In NM, irrigation accounts for about 84% of freshwater use followed by public/domestic use of 10%. Mining, thermo-electric, livestock production, aquaculture, and industrial uses collectively account for the other 6%.
Highlights
Meeting the food and nutrition needs of a growing human population, expected to reach almost 10 billion by 2050 [1,2], while lowering the environmental footprint of agriculture is perhaps the most significant challenge of modern farming
Our estimates of the average water footprint of New Mexico (NM)’s beef production were 28,203 L/kgmeat, the majority of which was accounted for by green water as it represented about 82% or 23,063 L/kgmeat used by rangeland forages (Table 4)
In cow-calf operations, green water accounted for 99.5% of the Water Footprint (WF), whereas blue water accounted for 100% of beef WF during backgrounding and feedlot production phases
Summary
Meeting the food and nutrition needs of a growing human population, expected to reach almost 10 billion by 2050 [1,2], while lowering the environmental footprint of agriculture is perhaps the most significant challenge of modern farming. Demand for meat (especially beef) is projected to increase by 50% over the 30 years [5]. Despite these trends in demand, beef cattle production systems—especially those in dryland ecosystems such as the rangelands of the southwestern United States (US)—face many sustainability challenges [6], the most important of which is associated with climate change-driven increased variability and scarcity of water supply needed to produce the necessary feed for beef cattle [7]. About two-thirds of the world population lives under water stress conditions at least one month of the year, and roughly 6% of humanity face severe water scarcity throughout the year [2]. A better understanding of water consumption by the various human activities including one of its most important ones—food production—is critically needed
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