The life cycle (cradle to farm gate) agricultural land use associated with the six beef cattle production systems varied from 64.0 to 121.1 m2 yr/kg LW (Table 3). However, this land use cannot bedirectly compared as the proportions of unimproved and improved pasture and cropland varied. The land use quality, as described bythe net primary productivity of potential biomass, also varied, from a high of 934 g C m2yr 1 (high rainfall coastal cropland) to a low of 355 g C m2 yr 1 (semi-arid unimproved pasture land) (Table 4).