The carbon footprint of bovine meat (dairy herd)
Bovine Meat (dairy herd) emits about 29.201 kg CO₂e per 1 kg of fat and bone-free meat and edible offal. Below is where that figure actually comes from — every stage of the chain, not a single headline number.
- Farm
- 21.916 kg
- 75%
- Emissions on the farm itself — livestock methane, fertiliser, fuel, manure.
- Feed
- 3.504 kg
- 12%
- Growing, processing and shipping the crops the animals eat.
- Processing
- 1.548 kg
- 5%
- Turning the raw product into food: milling, refining, slaughter, curing.
- Land Use Change
- 1.266 kg
- 4%
- Carbon released when forest or grassland is cleared to produce it.
- Transport
- 0.592 kg
- 2%
- Moving it from farm to processor to shop.
- Packaging
- 0.375 kg
- 1%
- Producing the packaging it reaches you in.
How it is grown changes the number by 55%
These are 12 separately assessed production systems for the same product. Emissions are farm-gate — the part the grower controls — and range from 19.763 to 44.031 kg CO₂e. A label on a shelf almost never tells you which one you are holding.
- Cull cow, organic, system n°3, at farm gatelowest19.763
- Cull cow, organic, system n°5, at farm gate20.903
- Calf, 14 days old, organic, system n°3, at farm gate20.906
- Calf, 14 days old, organic, system n°5, at farm gate21.294
- Calf, 14 days old, organic, system n°1, at farm gate21.555
- Calf, 14 days old, organic, system n°4, at farm gate22.686
- Cull cow, organic, system n°4, at farm gate25.728
- Calf, 14 days old, organic, system n°2, at farm gate25.862
- Beef cattle, national average, at farm gate35.647
- Cull cow, organic, system n°1, at farm gate35.803
- Cull cow, organic, system n°2, at farm gate37.36
- Suckler heifer, conventional, fattening system, more than 1.2 LU per ha, at farm gate44.031
kg CO₂e per 1 kg of fat and bone-free meat and edible offal, cradle to farm gate. Farm-gate figures exclude processing, packaging and transport, so they sit below the full total above.
Lower-carbon alternatives
Each emits less than half as much as bovine meat (dairy herd).
Similar products
Common questions
- How much CO2 does bovine meat (dairy herd) produce?
- About 29.201 kg CO₂e per 1 kg of fat and bone-free meat and edible offal, measured across the supply chain. That is roughly the same as driving 172 km in an average petrol car.
- What drives the footprint of bovine meat (dairy herd)?
- Farm is the largest contributor at 21.916 kg CO₂e, about 75% of the total. Transport is only 0.592 kg — which is why what you eat matters far more than how far it travelled.
- Does how bovine meat (dairy herd) is produced change its footprint?
- Yes, substantially. Across 12 production methods in this dataset the farm-gate emissions range from 19.763 to 44.031 kg CO₂e — a difference of 55%.
- Where does this data come from?
- The WRAP UK Food & Drink Emission Factor Database v2.0, which aggregates peer-reviewed life-cycle assessments. This product's figures come from Poore & Nemecek (2018).
Figures from the WRAP UK Food & Drink Emission Factor Database v2.0, which aggregates published life-cycle assessments; this product's data originates from Poore & Nemecek (2018), for global. Real values vary by farm, region and method — treat these as the shape of the problem, not a measurement of any one item on your shelf.
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