“Recycling Nutrients in the Beef Supply Chain through Circular Manuresheds” by Sheri Spiegal, Joao Vendramini, Shabtai Bittman, Maria Silveira, Craig Gilfford, Al Rotz, John Ragosta, and Peter Kleinman at the 2023 Water for Food Global Conference. A recording of the presentation can be found on the conference playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSBeKOIXsg3JNyPowwJj6NDSpx4vlnCYj.

1. Recycling Nutrients in the Beef Supply
Chain through Circular Manuresheds
Sheri Spiegal, Joao Vendramini, Shabtai Bittman, Maria Silveira, Craig Gifford,
Al Rotz, John Ragosta, Peter Kleinman
Water for Food Global Conference | 9 May February 2023

2. Rangeland Management Specialist
from Las Cruces, New Mexico

3. Long-Term Agroecosystem
Research Network (LTAR)
Spiegal, Bestelmeyer et al. 2018
Evaluating
strategies for
local and
national
agricultural
sustainability
with nationally
coordinated
data,
information &
knowledge
+Canada
Mexico
Argentina
Uruguay

4. (Harder et al., 2021)
Nutrient circularity: Recovering nutrients from manures and post-
harvest byproducts and reusing them for further agricultural production
 Substituting food co-products and wastes for conventional
animal feeds
 Substituting manures or biosolids for commercial fertilizers
 Both

5. Why nutrient circularity via manure
management? Fertilizer risks
P rock is finite

6. Why nutrient circularity via manure
management? Manure surpluses in some places
Pollution of
aquatic
ecosystems
Impacts on air
quality and
quality of life

7. e.g., Koelsch et al., 2021;
Tarkalson et al., 2018
Why nutrient circularity via manure
management? Potential benefits of land application

8. North American beef industry:
Opportunities for nutrient circularity?

9. Spiegal,
Vendramini et
al., 2022
But! Nutrient
flows among
links in the beef
supply chain
can be
geographically
distant.

10. Geographically distant links result in “telecoupling”

11. Questions abound!
?

12. “Manureshed” platform to identify and
weigh tradeoffs

13. Any crop
in vicinity
Circular,
back to
feed-
producing
lands

14. Three “hay-grazing landscapes”
 Grazingland
production co-located
with hayfields
 Potential to substitute
feedlot manure for
commercial fertilizer
on hayfields
Spiegal, S., Vendramini, J. M. B., Bittman, S., Silveira, M. L., Gifford, C., Rotz, C. A., Ragosta, J. P., &
Kleinman, P. J. A., 2022. Recycling nutrients in the beef supply chain through circular manuresheds: Data to
assess tradeoffs. Journal of Environmental Quality, 51(4), 494–509.

15. Dataset 1: Hay
intake by grazing
cattle in three hay-
grazing landscapes
Dataset 2: Nutrient
removal by hay fed
to grazing cattle in
three hay-grazing
landscapes
Dataset 3a-c: Beef
cattle exports from the
hay-grazing landscape
of New Mexico, Florida,
western Canada
Dataset 4: Feedlot manure
nutrients from cattle from 3
hay-grazing landscapes
available for transport

16. 12% N, 36% P 37% N, 34% P
3% N, 6% P
647 km 1884 km
1587 km

17. But! In the
current
agri-food
system, most
manureshed
management
occurs at the
neighborhood
scale.
Meredith, Rotz et al., 2022

18. Next steps:
Assess
environmental,
social,
economic
impacts and
tradeoffs

19. If trans-regional redistribution is deemed
optimal, new incentives, structures needed
 Supply chain coordination
 Coordinated distribution
schemes with nutrient recovery
technologies
 Auction platforms
 Customer awareness for niche
marketing
 Ecosystem service market
incentives

20. “Manureshed” platform can help
identify and weigh tradeoffs

21. We all live in a manureshed! Let’s discuss
collaborative management options.
Sheri.Spiegal@usda.gov
Photo: Modern Farmer