December 7, 2021

Study found beef cattle in Ireland capable of emitting 30% less methane

Some beef cattle in Ireland can produce up to 30% less methane emissions while maintaining top productivity levels, new research has found.

It emerged from Ireland's first large-scale examination of methane emissions in the beef herd which incorporated a new measurement to calculate output of the potent greenhouse gas on 282 cattle.

The RumenPredict study, a collaboration between Teagasc, UCD and the ICBF, is considered "a major step" towards identifying and breeding low-emitting beef cattle to reduce livestock emissions.

Teagasc PhD student Paul Smith told the Farming Independent that, until now, the genetic selection of low-emitting cattle had been limited by the link between methane output and feed intake.

"Animals that consume more feed tend to produce more methane on a daily basis," Smith explained. "This relationship has, so far, made it difficult to breed low methane emitting animals without negatively impacting feed intake, which is a key driver of animal productivity, particularly in forage-based production systems.

"However, using a new concept called residual methane emissions (RME), we calculated RME values for a population of late maturing and early maturing beef animals."

RME can be defined as the difference between an animal's actual and expected methane output, based on the daily quantity of feed it consumes and bodyweight.

"After ranking animals high, medium and low on the basis of RME, we found that low RME animals produced 30% less methane, but maintained the same level of feed intake, feed efficiency, growth and carcass output as their high ranking RME contemporaries."

Smith said the study, published in American Journal of Animal Science, "is a positive story for the beef industry".

He added: "Everyone knows the environmental association with livestock production, but breeding can have a significant role in reducing methane without impacting performance, productivity and profitability.

"We hope to have over 1,000 animals measured by the end of this year and, over the coming years, look at how it could be rolled out to the national herd.

"It won't happen overnight, but hopefully we can uncover the genetic factors associated with RME, and potentially utilise it within a breeding index to help lower emissions for our 2030 and 2050 targets.

"This study was done on beef animals on a high concentrate diet and will need to be validated in a grass-based system."

- Farming Independent