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Circular management of beef supply chains holds great promise for improving sustainability from grazing agroecosystem to dinner plate. In the United States and Canada, one approach to circularity entails transporting manure nutrients from cattle produced in feedlots back to the grazing agroecosystems where they originated to enrich haylands for further grazing cattle production. We provide data to assess this strategy centered around three grazing agroecosystems: Florida, New Mexico, and the provincial assemblage of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia. We describe four datasets that can be used to estimate the potential nutrient utilization of hay fed to grazing cattle in the three grazing agroecosystems and the magnitudes of feedlot manure nutrients available for transport back to them. We found that although biogeography and management differ among the three grazing agroecosystems, the hay allocated for grazing cattle represented approximately 65% of the total harvested hay produced per agroecosystem after accounting for harvest losses, and that on average all three areas exported about 450,000 cattle annually for feedlot, pasture, and slaughter to states across the US. Although we highlight only three grazingland settings, our approach relies on methods that could ultimately be scaled nationally and internationally, with applicability to other animal industries for which circular management is an aspiration for sustainability outcomes. 

Sensor technologies can identify modified animal activity indicating changes in health status. This study investigated sheep behavior before and after illness caused by mold-contaminated feed using tri-axial accelerometers. Ten ewes were fitted with HerdDogg biometric accelerometers. Five ewes were concurrently fitted with Axivity AX3 accelerometers. The flock was exposed to mold-contaminated feed following an unexpected ration change, and observed symptomatic ewes were treated with a veterinarian-directed protocol. Accelerometer data were evaluated 4 days before exposure (d −4 to −1); the day of ration change (d 0); and 4 days post exposure (d 1 to 4). Herddogg activity index correlated to the variability of minimum and standard deviation of motion intensity monitored by the Axivity accelerometer. Herddogg activity index was lower (p < 0.05) during the mornings (0800 to 1100 h) of days 2 to 4 and the evening of day 1 than days −4 to 0. Symptomatic ewes had lower activity levels in the morning and higher levels at night. After accounting for symptoms, activity levels during days 1 to 4 were lower (p < 0.05) than days −4 to 0 the morning after exposure. Results suggest real-time or near-real time accelerometers have potential to detect illness in ewes. 

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%.