Maine Farmcast Episode 22: Beef Sustainability with Dr. Sebastian Mejia Turcios
On this episode of the Maine Farmcast, Dr. Glenda Pereira, Assistant Extension Professor and State Dairy Specialist for the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, has a conversation with Dr. Sebastian Mejia Turcios about his work on beef sustainability conducted at the clear center at UC Davis. The Clarity and Leadership for Environmental Awareness and Research Center – or CLEAR Center – is using research and extension to advance sustainability in animal agriculture. Dr. Mejia Turcios is actively involved with members of the industry, and is also heavily involved in research much of which pertains to finding new strategies to reduce the environmental impact of livestock production.
Episode Resources
- Learn more about Dr. Sebastian Turcios
Automated Transcript
Glenda Pereira: 00:19
Welcome to the Maine Farmcast. This is your host, Dr. Glenda Pereira. I’m an assistant extension professor as well as the dairy specialist for the University of Maine Cooperative Extension and an assistant professor within the School of Food and Agriculture. Today, I have this pleasure of speaking with Dr. Sebastian Mejia Turcios, who is a current Ph.D. graduate of the University of Cal Davis campus. So without further ado, Dr. Sebastian Mejia Turcios, please, would you let our listeners learn a little bit about yourself, where you’re from, and how, you ended up doing research on beef sustainability?
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 01:06
Yeah. Yeah. No. Yeah. It’s it’s good to be it’s good to be here, but thanks for inviting me to your podcast.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 01:12
It’s always fun to do this type of work, you know, just doing communications outside of just academia. I just graduated from UC Davis with my Ph.D., but the road to UC Davis well, I mean, it’s a journey that, well, I mean, we could do a whole podcast about it. But, yeah, I’m originally from Honduras, coming from, an ag background. My grandparents were farmers and ranchers. I saw from, very early on, I was introduced to the world of agriculture, and I, completely fell in love with it.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 01:47
And, when it came time to decide what I wanted to study, what I wanted to pursue as my professional career, I mean, I’m a agriculturalist, the the clear answer. I went to Earth University in Costa Rica. I got a full scholarship to to Costa Rica to pursue my bachelor’s in agronomy. I also had that, you know, passion for livestock, and so I always had that focus on livestock production. And from there, I wanted to continue studying livestock.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 02:16
So I went to I did an exchange program that with the Ohio State University that focuses on focuses on bringing students to the US, exchange students who want to learn about agriculture and also learn the language. And so I told them I wanted to work with cows, and so they sent me to all the places they could send me to. They sent me to Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. But it was quite a shock to go to Wisconsin. It was in the middle of January when I arrived straight from Costa Rica, and, you know, Costa Rica you imagine Costa Rica is tropical, climate, and then going into Wisconsin is cold.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 02:54
And so, yeah, so I went there for a year. I worked at a family dairy farm. While I was there, I knew that I wanted to do a master’s, at least a master’s degree. Wanted to go to grad school and, you know, work on on on on with livestock, but I found a, an opportunity to go to University of Florida to do an internship in beef cattle nutrition. And so I went to UF, to University of Florida, and I went to a research station, to be more specific, in Mariana, Florida.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 03:25
I worked with doctor Nicolas DiLorenzo there for about 6 months, and, I mean, he does a lot of work with beef nutrition and also with methane. And so that was the first time that I learned that I could measure methane from a cow, and I just thought it was fascinating. I mean, I was completely blown away by it. And so that’s when it clicked. You know?
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 03:47
I mean, I learned how nutrition is intertwined with environmental emissions and, you know, what happens in the rumen and how that impacts enteric emissions from cattle. And so that’s when I decided I wanted to pursue nutrition. And so that’s why I end up ended up going to Texas Tech University to study animal science with emphasis in beef cattle nutrition. I did a little bit of methane work there, but not as much as I wanted to. And so while during my time at Tech, I chose to do a Ph.D.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 04:18
And when I started my master’s in there, I thought I would do a Ph.D., but, I mean, the work was so interesting, and I saw I saw so much value in it, you know, moving forward. No. I mean, it’s just nothing that never that ever crossed my mind. And then I start hearing about the this stuff when I’m at Texas Tech, so I guess I saw the value and the of pursuing that for my Ph.D. So that’s I emailed a bunch of professors, including Dr. Frank Mitloehner.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 04:47
All of them did a little bit of work with sustainability because we all do in some way or another. We’re always working towards being more sustainable, but nobody like Frank Mitloehner does work, like, you know, in in that in that in that discipline, in that area of research.
Glenda Pereira: 05:05
So, do you wanna share a little bit about, just briefly, the type of research that you’ve conducted within this space and specifically may maybe some applied research, that you wanna share with folks
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 05:19
Yeah. So the the research that I’ve done with through my Ph.D. here at UC Davis, it touches different aspects of sustainability. I did 3 experiments. The first one was looking at different feed additives. So I used, essential oils, as feed additives to to reduce enteric emissions.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 05:41
And enteric emissions is methane that’s being produced in the rumen. It’s being belched out through the mouth of the animal as 95% of the methane produced by a cow comes through the mouth and is coming from the from the rumen. So that’s considered enteric emissions. As as and as nutritionists and knowing that that’s where most most of the methane is coming from, we do a lot of work to focus on, well, what can we do within the rumen to bring those emissions down. Right?
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 06:07
So, there has been I mean, so since I joined my lab, I mean, not only in my lab and just in in the industry in general, so many papers, so much research has been done with feed additives, and so many companies has been have been formed around this this feed additive, technology, because some of them work, some of them don’t, some of them need to be developed more, but there is a lot of a lot of work that needs to be done and can be done to provide feed additives, alternatives to producers, to reduce
Glenda Pereira: 06:43
You know, as with everything, not there’s no one size fits all.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 06:46
Yeah.
Glenda Pereira: 06:46
So it’s important that we can develop these products that can, you know, provide outcomes for a different types of systems whether that’s, you know, maybe, you know, beef dairy, if it’s organic or conventional or if you’re feeding, you you know, what whatever feed whatever management exists on your farm. So it’s you’re saying it’s important to, have options because, the one size fits all approach isn’t really something that works for everybody.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 07:24
Exactly. Yeah. And, I mean, like I said, for that project that I did, it was looking at essential oils, and this is an example of not one solution fits all. Right? Because essential oils, they’ve been used in the industry already, and mostly in the dairy industry.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 07:41
So, one of the essential oil blends that I use in my project had been, implemented in their industry for a while, and it’s shown. And there there was research behind it too that it reduces, methane intensity. This that is the amount of methane per unit of product that is per unit of energy corrected milk, a kilogram of energy corrected milk or kilogram of milk. And and, I mean, that is the ultimate metric for your environmental footprint. How much how how many emissions am I producing per kilogram of product
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 08:16
And so it showed that it was reducing that environmental intensity of methane and on dairy. Right? And it it was increasing production too. So that’s that that was what was driving the the the methane intensity. But then we brought that additive and brought it to a feedlot and fed it to feedlot cattle, consuming that high energy diet, high concentrate, high proportion of grains, and it showed that it didn’t work.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 08:43
It didn’t it didn’t show the same results that you would have observed at a dairy farm. And, you know, that tell that you have to dig in and say, well, what happened? You know, some of the things that we concluded is that, well, these additives, they are called rumen modifiers. So they really work differently depending on the environment that is within the rumen, and that environment is so much affected by the diet type. And so, there are some diet differences there between a dairy ration and a feedlot ration that could be reducing the efficacy of these products.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 09:21
And so at the time, of course, as a grad student, it’s my first project, and it didn’t do anything. I I was disappointed and all bummed out. And I was like, well, I that’s such a bummer it didn’t work. But, you know results. Our results.
Glenda Pereira: 09:34
But no results is still results.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 09:36
It’s still results. And it’s
Glenda Pereira: 09:37
important to report and talk about that. Yeah. You know, I do think as scientists, we get so focused on, oh, we wanna get a significance. We wanna see a difference, but when we don’t see a difference, it you know, we we just need to ask more questions, and we do ask more questions. So it opens up opportunity for, you you know, like you said, questions and and, building a new hypothesis.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 10:01
Yeah. Exactly. And and and, you know, after thinking about it, I and and then I also you know, you have to do your due diligence and research the literature because you have to discuss your results. And, like, doing that, I found more information about these additives and some other projects that have been done and, with beef cattle, and it shows that, you know, similar results. You know, the additive the those results observed in dairy research don’t translate directly to to feedlot research.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 10:31
And so and they discuss also the same thing or diet, diet type, you know, maybe something have having to do with the, you know, the whole, like, physiology of the animal. You know? Well, dairy cattle produce far more methane than feedlot cattle, And so maybe there is, like, the populations of methanogens within the rumen with a feedlot ration, with a feedlot animal. They’re not as abundant as they would be in a dairy cow. So, you know, right there, you have less to work with.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 10:57
And, I mean, there’s so much more research, you know, you can you can do with that. And, I mean, at the time, we could we could, go in in a little deeper and, you know, take blood samples and and take rumen fluid samples to see what happened there, but, the project aim was not was not that. It was just looking at enteric emissions. So there’s more work that needs to be done in a while. May do we need to do a dosage response, study to see what dose is appropriate for feedlot cattle?
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 11:25
Do we need because these are essential oil blends, do we need to look at the blend and change the proportion of each individual essential oil within that product to see what applies for beef cattle? So that was one of my projects. After that, I told, Dr. Mitloehner, well, I think I wanna do all that kind of work. You know? I the the something that is also, taking a lot of traction and gaining a lot of, it’s, yeah, getting a lot of concern, I guess, is nitrogenous emissions.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 12:01
And there has been quite a bit of, uproar in Europe, in the Netherlands, and all these countries, in in in in that part of the world, about nitrogenous emissions, ammonia, more specifically. And so in the Netherlands, the government is pushing farmers to reduce their cattle herds, to sell their cows, or close down their operations because, you know, animal production and livestock is an important source of nitrogen, you know, nitrogen that is secreted through the urine and the feces. And so finding ways to reduce the nitrogen waste, that goes into the environment is is also is is important. And, you know, now methane is the big thing right now here in the US, and ammonia is going to be the next big thing. It’s going to come here.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 12:51
So, I wanted to do that type of work, and so and we, you know, we were lucky that Cargill was looking into doing that type of research. They’re fine tuning their ration formulator and looking at doing precision nutrition with their software and we’re looking by very well into how can we optimize, proteins supplementation. And so they wanted to do that type of work, and, yeah, we did it in our cattle pen enclosures that we call their bio their bio bubbles, which is this facilities where you can put entire groups of cattle, and it’s covered up by a greenhouse looking structure. And it’s enclosed, so everything that’s being produced inside of that facility, we’re measuring it. And so we tested different rations.
Glenda Pereira: 13:38
It’s all captured.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 13:39
Yeah.
Exactly.
Glenda Pereira: 13:40
The gases are all captured and captured. Yeah.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 13:43
Yeah. Exactly. And so we tested with that ration formulator. We the we formulated these different TMRs, different, feed rations, and we fed that to cattle. And we and, I mean, the main differences in those diets were was protein content, and and not only protein content, but the the portion of that content, the protein content that is degraded in the rumen and what is not degraded.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 14:10
So fine tuning those parameters in a ration to, be more precise on how we feed protein. And, you know, the results were quite amazing. I mean, that that that there’s a the project that I was very happy about because it the results were really neat. I mean, the the we had, you know, the the a deficient ration, a balanced ration, and an excess ration. And you can see the separation in ammonia emissions, among between the 3 of them.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 14:40
You know, you see the the deficient at the very bottom, the balance in the middle, and the excess at the very top, with over 55% difference between excess and deficient. So, you know, by just doing dietary interventions, you can significantly reduce, ammonia emissions. And then you can find that point when you optimize animal performance because, of course, when you start playing with protein in your diet, you can impact growth in your animals. But, you know, if there’s such a huge difference between the the the the fish and the and the excess, maybe you can find a point when where you are optimizing proteins implementation to achieve your growth goals and your objectives as far as productivity, but you’re also reducing the waste. Right?
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 15:24
So that that was one of the second project that I did for my Ph.D., and it was quite quite interesting. And, well, the third project was looking at heat stress mitigation methods, and we did this research in Mexico, in Culiacan, one of the hottest parts of the country where you can’t do livestock without without shade. You need shade. And so that project was looking at different strategies to mitigate heat stress, and we use conventional shade as a shade that they use there, and they’ve used for a long time with the double shade. And then we went step further, and we use these big domes that completely basically covered almost the entire pan and then domes with fans.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 16:08
We even included fans. And we look at, of course, growth parameters, you know, growth performance in the cattle, and we also did a life cycle assessment, a partial life cycle assessment that is cradle to crate to cradle to gate. So it’s just where everything that’s happening in the within the farms and, you know, taking inventory of all the inputs and the outputs just within the farm. And so we extrapolated those the the the results that we saw in growth, and we took, you know, historical weather weather data, and we we did, projections, 9 years into the future, you know, how how these, heat stress mitigation methods would affect not only performance of the cattle, but also environmental and economic outcomes of these strategies. And so, you know, we know that shade is the most practical way to mitigate heat stress, and there is plenty of research showing that it does impact performance.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 17:12
So that when you mitigate shade, you improve the performance of your cattle, or, you know, the other way around. If you don’t have shade, you worsen it. I mean, it it just you know you know what I’m saying. So but it turns out that the more you mitigate you mitigate heat stress, the more you improve that performance. And if there’s one way if there’s one way to reduce the environmental footprint of an animal, it’s improving its efficiency, improving its growth, improving its milk yield.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 17:42
Just by doing that, you know, before we even look into any feed additives, any fancy stuff, just by improving the productivity of your herd, you are actively reducing your environmental footprint, and, you know, that is just something that you can start doing now as a producer. And so with those, heat stress mitigation methods, we looked into, you know, well, the more you reduce increase shade, the more you increase shade, the more you improve your the growth of your animals. It turns out that you reduce your environmental footprint on nitrogen loss, enteric, emissions, your carbon footprint, of course, you know, not not even nitric oxide emissions. You reduce, also, your believe it or not, your fossil fuel energy input. It wasn’t reduced, so substantially because, like, you know, when we’re comparing the extremes here, the the the dome with the fans and the conventional shade within that project.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 18:44
Even though with fans, we’re using electricity almost 247 because you increase the productivity of your animals so much when you divide the fossil energy energy used per kilogram of hot carcass weight, for example, what’s our functional unit in this project, you are still staying relatively similar. You know? So and then we looked into the economic assessment. Well, you know, of course, the investment the initial investment for something like a dome with fans compared to conventional shade is going to be, I mean, quite different. Right?
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 19:17
And we were talking about many times more with the I’m not remembering the the exact figure right now, but, the the many times more expensive
Glenda Pereira: 19:29
upfront investment.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 19:30
Yeah. Exactly. But then we
Glenda Pereira: 19:32
fans and yeah.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 19:33
Yeah. We looked into the amortization of these strategies. You know? And, like, the our assessment showed that after 9, 10 years of having these domes and fans, you would you would have paid off the investment. And then, you know, after that, all that return, the profit that you get from increased annual performance, it would all be, you know, just completely for for the producer, and we’re talking about, a significant increase in profit.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 20:05
Yeah.
Glenda Pereira: 20:05
Right. And so, you know, for like, one thing that we always think about that when we utilize heat abatement is fertility. Right? Conception suffers immensely in cattle. When it’s really hot and when they don’t have heat abatement strategies, so if we think about for everyday open that that animal is extra, It’s gonna be more costly
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 20:31
exactly you
Glenda Pereira: 20:32
can implement a heat abatement strategy. Of course, it’s gonna help us to save dollars and cents long term because that animal is losing performance the more it has to utilize the energy right per per, feed consumed. So we feed those animals every day the same, but it’s utilizing that energy differently on days when it’s really heat stressed, right? Well one it’s probably not gonna eat as much so there’s already a negative consequence of heat stress, but what it is eating it’s gonna have to utilize to, dissipate heat because they are able to do that and they have an oven inside of them. So really respiration and doing it, you know throughout the entire day and even at night when they’re trying to cool down and they can’t because they’re still like heat stressed. Yeah.
Glenda Pereira: 21:21
Is definitely one of the negative consequences and how they lose performance because they have to utilize that energy from feed differently. So absolutely
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 21:30
Yeah. I
Glenda Pereira: 21:30
can imagine that your results, absolutely displayed that.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 21:33
Yeah. Absolutely. I mean and and and the feedlot and the feedlot industry is the same. You know? The heat heat stress can, increase days on feed.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 21:42
You know? Without implementing shade, you can increase days on feed by 7 you know, over a week, and, I mean, we’re talking that’s considerable amount. You know? We’re talking about a feedlot of of 70, a 100,000 head of cattle increasing days of feed by 7 days you know, over 7 days. That is a substantial amount of resources that you have to allocate for that extra time.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 22:11
And, you know, at that scale, you are having an impact on your environmental emissions, on your environmental outcomes, and economic outcomes too. So, you know, by just increasing the performance by, you know, mitigating or introducing these heat abatement strategies, you know, you are, you are, effectively, improving the sustainability of your operation. And in the US, you know, I it’s it’s funny because, you know, we we in the United States, we, I mean, we are pioneers. We are and I say we like I’m an American, but, you know, I’ve been here for so long that and working in the livestock industry for so long that I feel like I’m part of it. And so we, I mean, we are the the gold standard, so to speak.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 23:03
You know? We are the most efficient, producer in the world as far as having agrcultural products. But then if you go to feedlots and you say, well, I’m sure then in the US, feedlots use shade across the border. I mean, it makes sense. Right?
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 23:18
You’d be surprised to to to know that it’s not it’s not the case. I mean, there is a there is a survey that was done in the in the area where the most, the the highest concentration of feedlots are in the United States. We’re talking, you know, Texas Panhandle, Oklahoma, Colorado, Nebraska, all the in that in that region, only 17% of feedlots have shade in their pens. 17. And then for only 47% of them have shade in their hospital pens.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 23:56
So not even are they, you know, not providing enough shade outside, but they’re not even giving shade to those animals that are sick. You know? So it begs the question, well, is shade really necessary? Well, the data indicates that it is. You know?
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 24:11
And and I understand that, such a large scale, it can be a quite substantial, investment, but in the long term, it’s going to improve, and and, you know, and you you will have to find an approach that works for the environmental conditions. I know that some some of those places are very, I don’t know. Their their their climates are can be very harsh, you know, windy, snow, and all that. So find something that works for you, but there’s no question about the fact that shade does does does matter. And, you know, if you look at all my and then now going back and looking at the different research projects that I’ve done, and I’ve touched on different parts of, you know, sustainability, you know, and and shade also is related with animal welfare, you know, and and and animal comfort.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 25:00
And so all these things are in the within their realm of sustainability. So that’s what I’ve done for my Ph.D.
Glenda Pereira: 25:08
Yeah. No. It it’s you’re certainly right that a lot of the projects you did all overlap, back in with, sustainable practices that farmers are able to implement. And so that kind of leads me to some of of what I wanted to ask you. So What would you say were the 3 strategies?
Glenda Pereira: 25:29
Let’s summarize them again for listeners for how they can practice or improving sustainability and some of these things come at a cost and maybe some of them they’re already on the their farm and they don’t they they have it been utilizing it. So for your first project, it was regarding feed additives.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 25:51
Mhmm. Feed additives.
Glenda Pereira: 25:52
Yes. So if they’re not if they’re not using feed additives, and again finding the one that works for them. There’s obviously a cost associated with feed additives, but long term, that feed additive might pay off. Mhmm. The second one was looking at protein, excretion.
Glenda Pereira: 26:10
So do they have a sense of how much protein? They’re losing in that manure, from the animal. So so that was another thing that they can look at and and maybe there are benchmarks Mhmm. That they can start to think about there and then ammonia. I think you said is coming down the pipeline.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 26:29
Mhmm. Yes. Yes, it is.
Glenda Pereira: 26:33
And then 3rd was, heat heat stress and heat abatement strategy. So, I think you hit on quite a bit of quite a bit of, really important points for things to think about when we think about sustainability.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 26:46
Mhmm.
Glenda Pereira: 26:47
And then, I I did wanna ask this question. So, what does it mean to you and how do you define, reducing the environmental impact of livestock production? So is there something in your terms and and maybe in your opinion, how do you define this and, how how you know you know this and and I wanna ask this question because when we’re talking to the media, when people are interested in learning about how we’re reducing our environmental impact of livestock, is there a a good message or a good definition that you use that sort of really portrays what we’re doing, overall? And you can think about this some.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 27:33
Yeah. I mean, the way I think about it is, you know, we as an industry, we want to continue producing food. We want to continue, you know, giving that service to society. We also want to continue, running our businesses, you know, and and, of course, it is important to to producers to to be able to profit from their business. That’s how you make a living.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 28:04
And then, you know, when you depend your livelihood depends on on, on your farm, on your cattle. You know, you wanna make sure that you are obtaining profit from that. And and so all these environmental, conversations, you know, about the environment and the role that we play into the the, you know, the the global warming and climate change, whatever you you want to you know, however you wanna see it, you know, it’s going to start, you know, affecting that. You know, like, governments, especially our politicians, when they when they’re not in touch with the the needs of the the farmers and, you know, what, you know, what does it mean? You know, what does it mean that our farmers are warming the planet
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 28:51
Does it mean that we need to start getting rid of our cows? Do you need these does it mean that we need to start, you know, putting penalties on our producers, and so on. So looking into environmental emissions and looking into the whole sustainability of the livestock industry, it’s important because it’s our future. You know? Like, if we sustainability is about, meeting the needs of now without compromising the needs of the future.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 29:22
You know? So we need to think about producing a a product that is economically viable, and, you know, socially responsible and environmentally conscious. You know? So it it that is those are the three pillars of sustainability. And if we don’t we don’t focus on that, you know, we are we are hurting our bottom line.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 29:43
We’re hurting our communities that surround us, and we are are hurting the environment that we are going to leave for, future generations. You know? And if you look at, you know, you’re gonna you have you have a son now and you know that and you look at it in a while. What’s the what’s the world that I wanna leave for my for my children? You know?
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 30:02
You want to especially if you if you have a family that’s been raised in agriculture and you want to continue that because, I mean, I was raised in that. I know how how beautiful it is to be, you know, surrounded by animals and and and and agriculture, and that’s the same here. You know? The farmers want to continue doing that. Well, you need to look into, well, what can I do so that that keeps on on going, you know, in my family?
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 30:30
And I there are many things that are being done right now. I mean, feed additives are a big thing. I’d say to farmers, I mean, you don’t have to start using feed additives right now. First of all, the industry needs to do a good job at making those available and making those, be financially sound for you. You know
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 30:48
So, like, I know some of them are expensive, and, I mean, there’s some that are being introduced right now, like, the Bovaer, Elanco’s Bovaer as a 3 NLP, that has been researched for the last 10 years, and it shows consistent results to reduce methane by 30%, well, you know, that might be too expensive for you right now. And there’s so the industry needs to put programs in place that, you know, will reward producers for using those additives or at least make them break even. You know? I know that Elanco is developing their carbon credit program to make it feasible for producers to implement these these products. So, I mean, aside from thinking about feed additives, you know, looking into, well, how can I improve the the quality of my pastures?
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 31:38
How can I improve my grazing methods? How can I improve the health of my animals? How can I, you know, have a conversation with my nutritionist and see if we are doing the best that we can to provide the nutrition for animals, reduce waste? You know? So it’s just it’s so it’s vital.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 31:57
You know? It’s necessary. It’s something that we need to do to ensure the the future of of our industry. So that to me, that that’s all that it means. You know?
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 32:06
So I see I see the value. I see the need for it, and so it’s something that I’m passionate about, and I think, you know, a lot of us are. And then we see the future of the industry, needing this. And so that to me, that’s what it means.
Glenda Pereira: 32:23
I love that. Thank you. And you you hit on a lot of it, and I think, talking about the pillars of sustainability is one way that listeners can have this conversation with their community and with folks saying, you know, these are the ways I’m being sustainable, and I’m being conscientious to the environment. I am being conscientious to the future. And then, you mentioned something else that I thought was great too, and it was, that we’re all trying to produce food for the world.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 32:52
Mhmm.
Glenda Pereira: 32:52
So kind of going back to the goal of why are we doing this? We’re trying to produce something for consumption for the world. So I really liked that. Yeah. And so you kind of touched on this already, but, so you so you mentioned a couple of technologies, but but what are some policies and incentives, that you’ve made you know, because because in your space, there there is maybe more, involvement with what the the government and policies, because of the methane conversation and because of this sort of livestock impact to to to the world and and to, methane emissions.
Glenda Pereira: 33:30
So, what are some policies or incentives that, exist or could exist to support farmers in adopting these new practices. So you mentioned there was a Cargill product, and then there was a second one, that I, can’t recall right now. So what would you meant would you, mention those again? And then if there are any that you could see potentially being very beneficial, that maybe are in development. Now don’t give away all your secrets.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 34:01
No.
Glenda Pereira: 34:02
But but but just keep it general.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 34:04
Yeah. No. I mean I mean, we don’t we don’t have any secrets. I mean, we try to be as transparent as possible, and and, I mean, yeah, there in California, in specific, has been really good at promoting this, our research and looking at what can our government do to work with the the farmers instead of against them. Right?
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 34:30
How can we do put programs in place to reward and to promote technologies that are going to help us reduce the environmental impact of our state livestock industry? You know? And, I mean, California is a dairy state. You know? It’s the number one dairy state, in the in the country whether Wisconsin, likes it or not. California is the number one and, and we our our dairy farm is is is quite large, you know? And so we do have, those programs that the government is putting in place, you know, and more specifically looking at manure lagoons. You know, the all these dairy farms there, they have built these big, big manure lagoons, and so they retain the manure, and that manure produces biogas, produces methane. Like, 60% of that, that gas is being produced, but the comes from those lagoons is methane. And so the the state government with the California Ag Resources Board put, put, programs in place, to well, can we do something to use that biogas?
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 35:39
And so they started covering these lagoons and making these biodigesters and catching that that biogas and using it to produce energy, electricity, using it as biofuel. And so but all of that is being is being spearheaded by the government. The government is working with the farmers to do that. And lo and behold, the bioenergy the the energy that is being produced from that, it’s a source of income for the farmer. You know?
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 36:11
It’s a it even makes more money than than the cows. You know? So it’s like, you know, those programs that have been introduced by the government, I mean, that is that is very, very unique in California. And I think more more places around the country and more, you know, entities around the country, could do that, would work with the farmers, not against them. And so, you know, policies as far as policies, policies that that make sense, you know, may that are that don’t come at a at a cost to the farmer, that don’t come, I as a as a detriment to to their business, to their future, to to to their stability.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 36:53
You know? And so and, I mean, companies in private, industries, like, you know, like I mentioned, Elanco is putting in place their carbon credit program because that that could be, a way for the producer to justify the use of this product that’s going to reduce methane. Because as noble as a goal, that reducing methane can be, you know, reducing our environmental footprint footprint, we have to be we have to, be able to make it financially sound. You know? You like my adviser says, and I’m trying to I’m trying to give him the credit for it because I don’t wanna take, his his all his phrases away from him and take credit from him.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 37:38
You can be green without being in the green. Right? You have to be economically sound. You have to be economically viable in your business. So how am I going to use this feed additive that reduces methane that I know will reduce methane, but it’s costing me money.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 37:56
You know, I am losing money on it. That’s that that’s not what we’re looking for. So, you know, companies
Glenda Pereira: 38:02
pencil out.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 38:03
Exactly. It doesn’t pencil out.
Glenda Pereira: 38:05
And I think yeah. So and and I think what we were saying too was one of the pillars of sustainability is profitability.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 38:14
Exactly.
Glenda Pereira: 38:15
And like you were saying, you you know, you you were tying it back to generational farms. If we want this farm to remain a farm, we have to make sure that we’re being profitable.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 38:25
Yeah.
Glenda Pereira: 38:26
Because for the long term, if we’re if we’re not breaking even and making a profit, then it’s likely we might not have this business in 5, 10 years. So I really like that it all kind of Yeah. Ties back to what you were mentioning. Yeah.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 38:40
Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. And so yeah. So for for governments to introduce, yeah, regulations and policies that work with the farmer, not against them and for for businesses that are looking into, you know, providing the services, you know, to reduce environmental emissions, be it feed additives, be it, you know, animal welfare strategy or whatever it is.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 39:07
You know? Find a way that where it it makes financial sense. You know? And and I know, I keep talking to Elanco because I know Elanco is doing this right now with their Bovaer product. You know?
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 39:19
It will it will reduce methane. Yes. But how, you know, not necessarily improve performance. So where where where am I taking this? Where is my ROI?
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 39:28
You know? Am I even going to break even with this? And a product like Bovaer is going is going to be fairly expensive. You know, it’s a new product. You know, it’s just towards methane, and so the company is looking into establishing their carbon credit program so that the producer can say, well, I am pulling this much carbon out of the atmosphere and, you know, how can I turn it to this, this service into carbon credits and then make try to bring some of that investment back toward toward to the farm?
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 39:59
So all those programs being put in place are going to make this make sense. You know? So
Glenda Pereira: 40:06
And do you have a resource? Is there maybe a liaison service that’s tied with extension or with the university or a group of folks that, you know, doing some of that, facilitation of how do farmers kind of, like you said, utilize this as a non milk check or non meat.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 40:26
We have groups that are looking into the science and how we can we can work with producers like ourselves at the CLEAR Center. Agnex is another one I know they’ve been doing quite a bit of work. They work very well with the industry, around in the in the area. And so I think for producers to to start asking questions about it, you know, hey. I heard about this.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 40:51
How can I, you know, how can I learn more? How, you know, can we look into it? If it’s available right now, let’s see what happens if we use it. Can we even we’re looking as an industry and scientists, we’re looking into how can we move a little faster, you know. How can we make things more available, and sooner for for producers?
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 41:11
And so but it does take, you know, time nonetheless, and so, but having that in mind already, thinking about it and moving forward, just having the the willingness to to to change, you know, the willingness to implement these new approaches, I think that’s that’s what producers should should do.
Glenda Pereira: 41:33
I really like that, and I like how earlier in our conversation, you talked about there’s so much management stuff we can be doing that doesn’t require a cost already on our farm. So as they’re waiting and and and sort of looking for these, available products that are gonna be coming on the market, such as the one that you mentioned over there that they can already be thinking about, you know, their management right right now before they maybe even implement something like that.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 42:01
Yeah.
Glenda Pereira: 42:02
And so I think that was good good advice. So, as we wrap up our conversation today, II wanna ask this last question and it’s it’s a challenging question I would say. Are there challenges for the industry in reducing, environmental impact and climate change? So do do you think there are challenges to this, goal of trying to, reach carbon neutrality, trying to, implement all these practices?
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 42:35
Oh, absolutely. I mean, there’s there’s there are always challenges. I mean, the main thing is making those technologies, available for for our our farmers and ranchers, making them, like I said, make sense financial sense for them to implement in the operations. But a lot of it is also I don’t wanna say try to convince, but also, like, make it makes, you know, sense, like, why why we’re doing this. I mean, the the beef industry is I mean, the majority of it is is family family businesses, you know, family operations.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 43:17
And so having all of that people on board, it it can be a challenge in reaching all of them. You know? Yeah. And, I mean, in the beef industry, specifically, the big, big, big challenge is cow calf. We’ve talked about feed additives quite a bit today.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 43:37
We’ve talked about dietary interventions. We’ve talked about all of that. But 80% of the methane that’s produced in the beef industry comes from cattle on pasture, cow calf, and stocker operations. And so, well, that is a if we talk about feedlot and cow calf, those are 2 the completely different things, you know. You know, in the feedlot, you just put something in the feed.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 44:02
You’re giving it to the animal right there. Well, how do you do it with cow cows that you see, you know, every once in a while, you know, like, some of them, you see them once a month and, you know, how can we deliver this?
Glenda Pereira: 44:14
Like, rangeland cattle.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 44:16
Yeah. Exactly. Rangeland cattle. Yeah. Like, the cow calf, industry, a lot of it, you know, they do rangeland cattle.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 44:23
And so, working with that segment on the industries is the biggest challenge because that’s where my the majority of methane, is coming from. But because believe it or not, cattle who are consuming a forage diet produce more methane than an animal consuming a high grain diet. It has to do with room fermentation, efficiency, and all of that, but that’s just how it is. And so we have all these animals, the majority of animals that are on pasture, on rangeland. How can we deliver these technologies?
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 44:55
How can we make it not only, yeah, financially viable, but also practical, you know, for this producer supplement. Yeah. And genetics is one thing that we’re looking into it. Yeah. That is one thing.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 45:07
I mean, we’re talking like, we’ve talked about genetics. We’ve talked we just had our state of the science summit here in UC Davis, and the entire conversation is about the environment, about environmental mitigation. And, yeah, gin you know, we talked about genetics. We talked about, of course, feed additives. So how we deliver them to our cows on rangeland.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 45:29
You know, do we need to do drenching? Do we need to do boluses? We even talked about vaccines, you know, like, can we create a vaccine that we just need to give it once or every once every 6 months when we bring our cows in, you know, to Preg check or to AI or, you know, to to treat them for something else. So, like, the wheels are turning. We are we’re already thinking about, you know, how how we can implement all these things in this very key part of our industry.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 45:57
So that those are those are challenges and also communicating what we do what we do. That’s the big challenge too, that I think, I mean, we put a lot of emphasis, into this here at the CLEAR Center, but our producers need to do a better job. You know? Like, that’s that’s been one of our our our weaknesses in the industry is that producers have not been willing to talk about these things. You know?
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 46:28
Well, you know, because, like, I get it. You know? When the entire they start talking about methane and environmental emissions and sustainability, As as a a producer, you might you might feel a little, you know, attacked at at some at some instances instances. But, you know, just telling your story, what you’ve done. You know?
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 46:48
If you’ve improved the quality of your of your range land, your pastures, the the way that you manage your animals. Just willing being willing to talk about it and to disseminate what you do, to to be better. And if you if you haven’t done anything, just start thinking about what what you can do. You know? And so, yeah, all that in communications, I think, yeah, those are some of the challenges that we need to overcome.
Glenda Pereira: 47:17
I I really, really liked what you said there. Sebastian, you said, discussing what we’ve already done. So maybe that’s a conversation starter for farmers when they’re out in their community. You know, hey, I Covered my lagoon. I Utilize better genetics.
Glenda Pereira: 47:37
I mean, let’s talk about the the gain, in performance we’ve achieved through genetic selection.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 47:45
Yeah.
Glenda Pereira: 47:46
So they’re already doing so many of these
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 47:49
things and
Glenda Pereira: 47:50
Absolutely. Talk talking about it from that angle instead of, you you know, maybe yeah. We can all improve this, but, like, look at what I’m already doing and I have been doing for generations, especially if it’s a generational farm, right? It’s it’s within their family.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 48:07
Absolutely.
Glenda Pereira: 48:07
So with that, how can folks learn more about what you’re doing? How can they learn more about, you? Would you mind sharing your, information here? Because I I know your your email might change, and that’s okay.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 48:27
Clearcenter@ucdavis. And so, you know, clear.ucdavis.edu. That’s our that’s our website. You have you’ll have access to all the information that I’ve talked about today. I mean, we write explainers and some some of the communication pieces that we put together, which is basically a compilation of research making it more, digestible, more readable for people who are not, familiar with with scientific literature.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 48:56
And so and so you can look there, and you can learn about our research. You can learn about our people. We have, you know, all of our staff and students there. And so, personally, I am on social media. So on X, on Instagram, on even even, TikTok.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 49:17
I don’t use it very much, but all of those platforms I am on there. Granted, I have been a little absent from all that because I have been trying to wrap up my PhD and graduate and all the all the big things that are happening at the moment, but I do communication science communication, on my social media platform. So if you look me up, s e Mejia Turcios, those, you know, those are basically my two initials and my two last names. You’ll find me on all those all those platforms. And so, yeah, if you if you wanna reach out, if you have any questions, feel free to message me on any of that.
Sebastian Mejia Turcios: 49:57
And so I’ll do my best to get back to you.
Glenda Pereira: 50:02
Awesome. Well, thank you so much, for taking the time to talk to our listeners about Thanks for listening to the Maine Farmcast. If you have any questions, comments, feedback, or suggestions for future episodes, be sure to email us at extension.farmcast@maine.edu.
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