Review: Sustainable ruminant production: circular systems, nutrition, and methane mitigation

Ruminant livestock provide essential nutrient-dense foods, support hundreds of millions of rural households, and contribute to national economies. However, they are also sources of greenhouse gas emissions and land-use change. Reconciling these competing pressures requires rethinking livestock production through the lens of a circular bioeconomy. This review explores opportunities to embed circularity principles into ruminant systems by recycling nutrients, valorizing agricultural byproducts, and better integrating crop-livestock systems. We evaluate recent advances in precision nutrition and anti-methanogenic feed additives as well as emerging biotechnologies such as CRISPR-based microbial and plant editing. These interventions show promise in reducing enteric methane emissions and improving feed efficiency, with variable scalability across intensive and extensive systems. Life cycle assessment and mechanistic modeling provide quantitative tools for capturing their environmental impacts, but methodological challenges remain, particularly regarding allocation of emissions, incorporation of soil carbon sequestration, and accounting for food-feed competition. The review also considers co-benefits and trade-offs, including productivity gains, food security improvements, and risks of rebound effects such as herd expansion. Advances in manure management, nutrient recovery, and digital monitoring, reporting, and verification frameworks further expand the potential of circular livestock systems. However, achieving large-scale change will require enabling policy frameworks, financial innovations, and inclusive approaches that address the needs of women, youth, and smallholder farmers in low- and middle-income countries where over 80% of livestock-related emissions originate. By aligning nutrition, management, biotechnology, and systems modeling within a circular bioeconomy, ruminant production can shift from being a leading contributor to environmental degradation toward becoming a cornerstone of climate mitigation, resource efficiency, and resilient food systems.