About the Roadmap

Recognizing a need for industry alignment to achieve shared ambitions in U.S. beef sustainability, USRSB, with support from the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR), convened academic and industry experts from across the beef value chain to provide insights and inform the development of a research roadmap that will guide the U.S. beef industry toward continued improvement and sustainable beef production. This resulting roadmap provides insights into targeted research needs in the USRSB goal areas Air & Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Land Resources and Water Resources and is focused on the live animal stages of production, including cow-calf (i.e., extensively managed animals including stocker production) and feedyard (i.e., intensively managed production including backgrounding). 

While this roadmap focuses on the environmental sustainability indicator areas for the live animal stages of production, research needs identified within the roadmap are underpinned by the need for a focus on efficiency, producer profitability and industry-wide collaboration. Like any journey, the best way to get to the destination isn’t to guess and figure it out on the fly, but to have a roadmap. A roadmap eliminates guess work, ensures efficiency, improves decision-making and increases stakeholder engagement. This roadmap is one of the most important steps the industry has taken together to ensure aligned, collaborative and forward progress toward a socially responsible, environmentally sound and economically viable U.S. beef industry. 

Access the executive summary and roadmap infographic below to learn more about the critical research areas and key research topics identified through this industry-wide, collaborative effort and stay tuned for the launch of the full roadmap later this spring!