The South Dakota Beef Industry Council is helping fund a study of beef carbon footprint.

Jude Capper, a Washington State University dairy science professor, is the lead researcher. She's comparing beef production's 2007 footprint to its 1975 footprint. In 1975, the U.S. harvested a record number of cattle.

Capper did a similar study of U.S. dairy production concluded that the carbon footprint of a gallon of milk fell by two-thirds from 1944 to 2007 as a result of modern efficiencies in the U.S. dairy industry.

"So we're looking to apply similar models to the beef industry and see if the advances we've made will also have the same effect on the carbon footprint of a pound of beef," she says.

Capper's carbon footprint study is expected to be completed this spring.

Source: SD Beef Industry Council