New research published on measuring methane from cattle related to milk fat

A meta analysis on measuring methane emissions from cattle based on milk fatty acids has been published in the Journal of Dairy Science. The paper is a result of joint research of METHAGENE project partners Wageningen University, University of Reading and the Utrecht University.

Establishing the relationship between enteric methane emissions of dairy cattle to milk fatty acid is an important step forward in finding low methane emitting cattle, and finally improving methane emissions from livestock. The number of studies in this field is limited and hence, a clear relationship between the two has not yet been indicated. The new study provides new opportunities for predicting enteric methane emissions for a great number of dairy cows by measuring the milk fatty acid profile. The research recently published is based on a meta-analysis to quantify the relationship between the methane emission of dairy cow (per unit of feed and unit of milk) and the milk fatty acid profile in dairy cattle. The study developed new equations to predict the methane emissions based on this milk fatty acid profile. Data from 8 experiments encompassing 30 different dietary treatments and 146 observations were included.

This research contributes to the objectives of the METHAGENE network to develop protocols to harmonise large-scale methane measurements using different techniques and easy to record and inexpensive proxies for methane emissions to be used for genetic evaluations.

Please find a link to the article here