Translations:Effects of climate change on livestock/31/en

By 2017, it was already reported that farmers in Nepal kept fewer cattle due to the losses imposed by a longer hot season. Cow-calf ranches in Southeast Wyoming are expected to suffer greater losses in the future as the hydrological cycle becomes more variable and affects forage growth. Even though the annual mean precipitation is not expected to change much, there will be more unusually dry years as well as unusually wet years, and the negatives will outweigh the positives. Keeping smaller herds to be more flexible when dry years hit was suggested as an adaptation strategy. Since more variable and therefore less predictable precipitation is one of the well-established effects of climate change on the water cycle, similar patterns were later established across the rest of the United States,

All but two or three of the top 10 beef-producing countries are likely to see lower production with greater warming.

As of 2022, it has been suggested that every additional millimeter of annual precipitation increases beef production by 2.1% in the tropical countries and reduces it by 1.9% in temperate ones, yet the effects of warming are much larger. Under SSP3-7.0, a scenario of significant warming and very low adaptation, every additional 1 °C (1.8 °F) would decrease global beef production by 9.7%, mainly because of its impact on tropical and poor countries. In the countries which can afford adaptation measures, production would fall by around 4%, but by 27% in those which cannot. In 2024, another study suggested that the impacts would be milder - a 1% decrease per every additional 1 °C (1.8 °F) in low-income countries and 0.2% in high-income ones, and a 3.2% global decline in beef production by 2100 under SSP3-7.0. The same paper suggests that out of the top 10 beef-producing countries (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, France, India, Mexico, Russia, Turkey and the U.S.), only China, Russia and the U.S. would see overall production gains with increased warming, with the rest experiencing declines. Other research suggests that east and south of Argentina may become more suitable to cattle ranching due to climate-driven shifts in rainfall, but a shift to Zebu breeds would likely be needed to minimize the impact of warming.