How Much Grain Does It Take to Produce a Pound of Meat?
Conversion Rates of Human-Edible Inputs by Different Species of Food-Producing Animals Widely varying estimates of the amount of grain required to produce a pound of meat from different species have been reported in recent years in both the popular press and in some scientific journals. Unfortunately, some of the estimates are incorrect, in some cases by a two- to four-fold margin. Estimates (from Table 4.5) of the grain fed per unit of carcass weight of four meats produced, in developed and developing countries, are as follows: Grain Per Unit of Product Product Developed countries Developing countries Beef 2.6 0.3 Sheep and goat meat 0.8 0.3 Pork 3.7 1.8 Poultry Meat 2.2 1.6 These results from global summaries of grain fed and meat produced are consistent with the results of detailed analyses of inputs and outputs for different countries and production systems reported in Chapter 4 of this report. A global estimate of conversion rate of human-edible feed to human food was presented by
