The cattle industry is looking at ways to monitor and improve the sustainability of cattle operations.    Bo Reagan with the Cattlemen’s Beef Board says the beef checkoff is funding life cycle analysis to determine inputs and outputs in production and what areas producers need to improve on to become more sustainable. 

Reagan says they have an eco-effective model where they can look at how producers can get the biggest bang for the buck when making changes that will impact sustainability.

From there they’ll develop a calculator so producers can pinpoint hot spots in their operations.  Reagan says the ultimate goal is to use all this information in issues management and communications plans specifically designed to address consumer concerns.