As the adage states, "you can't manage what you don't measure." One of the key projects of US beef's sustainability research program has been benchmarking the industry using life cycle assessment (LCA), which is a challenge as the industry is highly variable across regions 
This work relied on the cooperation of over 2000 cattle producers across the USA generously providing information to populate a computer simulation model known as the Integrated Farm Systems Model. IFSM was then used to generate inventories needed for a cradle-to-farm gate LCA
Some of the key results and regional variation in GHG emissions, fossil energy use, blue water use, and reactive nitrogen (all forms of N besides N2 gas). Energy use doesn't vary too much by region, but blue water use is highly variable
🔗: sciencedirect.com/science/articl…
🔗: sciencedirect.com/science/articl…
Across the different impact categories, the cow-calf phase of beef production actually tends to consume more resources/produce more impacts; however, it should makes sense as more cattle are in this phase.
Regional total greenhouse gas emissions breakdown essentially reflects where the cattle are in the US, with significant cow-calf production in the SE USA, & significant cow-calf & cattle feeding in the Southern Plains region.
Reactive N (Nr) emissions are similar in terms of higher emissions where there's higher cattle populations. Also, wetter regions and regions with more cattle feeding tend to have a slightly higher Nr emissions portion as compared to their cattle populations.
Fossil energy use tends to be higher in regions where there's more cattle feeding (feedlots), as that means more trucks, tractors, energy into feed processing, etc. Energy use by US beef cattle production is around 0.7% of total US fossil fuel combustion.
Blue water use (surface & ground water withdrawals) are far greater in the western USA that relies more on irrigated pasture & crops for beef cattle feed than the eastern US that is mostly rain fed (green water). Total blue 💦 consumption by beef is ~5% of US water withdrawals
