Source:
(2007)
URL:
http://www.epa.gov/agriculture/ag101/beef.html
Abstract:
Beef cattle production is a strong animal industry within the United States and throughout the world. Since beef cattle can graze forages in the open range and pasturelands, they serve a unique role in providing high quality protein for human consumption from byproducts and forage sources that humans and non-ruminant animals do not consume. Considerable land in the U.S. and the world that will not support intensive crop production, can often times sustain grasses and forages that provide conservation of the land, and produce feeds that cattle can utilize. Beef cattle production is dispersed throughout the U.S., but a significant amount of beef is produced on the rangelands of the Western U.S. About 830,000 farms had beef cows in 2000 and almost 12 million cattle on feed annually.