CSU Turns Northern Colorado Into Lab for Climate-Smart Beef

Colorado State University's AgNext program is running large-scale feedlot experiments in Northern Colorado aimed at breeding and managing cattle with lower methane emissions and higher feed efficiency. The work is backed by Five Rivers Cattle Feeding, Cargill, Dairy MAX, Merck Animal Health and the USDA.

The research turns Northern Colorado into a national testbed where the region's dominant cattle economy experiments with climate-smart beef production.

At CSU's Climate Smart Research Facility, researchers guide 250 steers into a hooded feed bunk using alfalfa pellets as bait. Specialized equipment then records methane output—a "burping event" occurs about once per minute—with each steer visiting two to three times daily over six months.

The current study tests adding soybean oil to corn-based rations. The strength: baseline data from a large group mirrors commercial feedlot conditions, allowing industry-wide modeling of methane emissions, according to CSU researchers.

The research tackles a paradox: Colorado's beef industry is economically vital but environmentally costly. Beef cattle anchor an agricultural industry worth an estimated $47 billion annually to the state, according to CSU.

Yet livestock produce 25% of U.S. methane emissions from human activities—each cow generates about 200 pounds annually, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

"The question for us is, 'How low can we get methane emissions and still have a productive animal that turns things we can't use and eat into things we can use and eat?'" said Kim Stackhouse-Lawson, director of AgNext.

Five Rivers Cattle Feeding, headquartered in Johnstown and the world's largest cattle feeder, is a frequent AgNext research partner. Tony Bryant, the company's director of nutrition, research and analytics, emphasized the industry's need for verifiable emissions data.

"We've got to quantify the greenhouse gases we are producing so we can determine our impact over time, evaluate the usefulness of new technologies and practices, and understand if and how we can help those wanting to offset carbon emissions through carbon credit markets in a move toward carbon neutrality," Bryant said.

Larimer County's 3,000 agricultural producers reported cattle as a sales source in 48% of cases, and the county's agricultural sales totaled $270.6 million in 2022, according to a 2024 county survey.

The long-term goal: identify and breed cattle with a genetic tendency to produce less methane—the same way ranchers select for meat quality and milk output today.