Canada launches major study into methane emissions from beef cattle

Animals that produce less methane according to their breeding value could also be used for breeding if they have other good characteristics. This is the first research project in which methane emissions from beef cattle are measured on such a large scale. The researchers are measuring the methane emissions from more than 2,300 beef cattle in the field, including the animals from the Roy Berg Kinsella Research Ranch. The inhaled and expelled methane is measured while they are fed pellets. This is a type of GreenFeed system that has previously been used with Canadian dairy cows and is also used in the Netherlands. This is still a challenge, says project leader John Basarab. He is an associate professor of livestock genetics at the Faculty of Agricultural, Life and Environmental Sciences at the Canadian university. 'It takes at least thirty days to get a good representation of the methane emissions from just one animal, so measuring thousands of beef cattle would take a lot of time.' ...