Special Issue "Beef Cattle: Advances for Sustainable Intensification"
A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Cattle".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2021.
Special Issue Editors
Interests: energy-efficient cattle; methane emissions; sustainable beef production systems
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Livestock production accounts for ~15% of greenhouse gas emissions globally, with cattle representing 65% of livestock emissions. However, cattle allow human food production from the world’s 50 million square kilometers of grasslands, which account for 40% of the terrestrial area. Grasslands provide for soil carbon sequestration, wildlife habitat, and feed for wild ungulates, among other ecosystem services. Therefore, eliminating ruminant livestock and converting grasslands to cropland to feed people is likely equally detrimental to the ecosystem, especially on ecologically sensitive land. Therefore, sustainably utilizing grasslands for human food production requires the sustainable intensification of beef cattle production systems.
Areas fruitful for sustainable intensification include genetic enhancements of forage and feed crop production to reduce input use and improve animal utilization, genetic and nutritional strategies to enhance reproductive efficiency, genetic selection to improve the energetic efficiency of animals, technologies to enhance feed utilization and animal health, and the genetic enhancement of animals to reduce the impacts of biotic and abiotic stressors. The aim of this Special Issue is to present recent research and reviews in the diverse disciplines influencing sustainable beef cattle production in order to stimulate cross-disciplinary research on this important topic.
Dr. Phillip Lancaster
Dr. Robert Larson
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- Beef cattle
- Sustainable intensification
- Forages and feeds
- Health
- Genetics
- Reproduction
Planned Papers
The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.
Title: Evaluating the importance of factors impacting beef sustainability using a sensitivity analysis
Authors: Phillip Lancaster; Robert Larson
Affiliation: Kansas State University, USA
Title: Mineral nutrition and beef cattle health
Authors: Roberto A. Palomares
Affiliation: College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA
Title: The role of genetic improvement of sexual precocity of heifers for sustainable intensification of beef production in the tropics
Authors: Lucia Galvão de Albuquerque
Affiliation: Universidade Estadual Paulista, Brasil