WUR is starting the Global Methane Genetics initiative, an international project to significantly reduce methane emissions from cows and sheep. The Animal Breeding and Genomic group is leading an international consortium with 50 partners from 25 countries that received 27.4 million dollars from the Bezos Earth Fund and the Global Methane Hub.
Last year, the WUR group already received 5 million dollars from these donors to initiate and lead a consortium of researchers and breeding organisations worldwide. In an impact analysis, they defined in which ruminants and in which regions of the world most progress can be made with genetic selection. Workshops were held and the outline and focus of the international initiative were set. The goal now is to reduce methane emissions from cows and sheep by 25% in 25 years using genomics and breeding programmes.
Feeding trough
The Netherlands is one of the leaders in breeding programmes to reduce methane emissions from dairy cows. In an earlier project, WUR, in collaboration with breeding organisation CRV and dairy company Friesland Campina, developed a breeding programme for methane. The methane emissions of fourteen thousanddairy cows were measured, says professor Roel Veerkamp. A device in the feeding trough in the milking robot measured the methane emissions belched from the cows' mouths. By linking this data to the DNA profile of the cows, Anouk van Breukelen in her PhD project was able to show that methane production in cows is hereditary and can vary by around 25%.
Veerkamp: 'In collaboration with the breeding company, we were able to combine this data in a procedure to estimate breeding values for bulls and cows. From now on, farmers and breeding organisations in the Netherlands can take account of methane emissions of the bulls and cows in their breeding programmes.
Health
By selecting and mating the cows and bulls with the lowest methane emissions, they can obtain offspring with low methane emissions, without ignoring all the other important traits in the breeding programmes, such as health, fertility, longevity and productivity. This way, methane emissions from Dutch dairy cattle can decrease by 1% per year. 'This decrease is permanent and accumulates', says colleague Birgit Gredler-Grandl of Breeding and Genetics.
As co-leader of the initiative, Gredler-Grandl will help other countries and organisations to accelerate their efforts to breed lower-methane animals. The first step is that the participants will share their data experiences. 'At the moment, there is too little data in many countries, so we first want to ensure that our partners collect additional methane measurements on cows and sheep and share this data, so that we can establish a more reliable link between the characteristics and the DNA profile of the different breeds. To make a good prediction about the methane production of the animals, the reference population must be large enough.'
Equipment
Why are breeders only now making use of genomic selection for a favourable climate score? 'Until recently, we did not know the genetic variation of methane production', says Veerkamp. 'Furthermore, we did not have the equipment to measure the methane emissions of the required large number of cows. That equipment was very expensive, but has since become more affordable, so that we can routinely measure the emissions per cow in barns. For the Dutch project, we measured 14,000 cows; that comes down to 3 million robot visits so far.'
While Dutch research focuses on dairy cattle, the focus in other countries is often on beef cows and sheep. This places different demands on the research, because beef cows and sheep are mainly kept outdoors in large herds, which means that methane measurements in stables are not possible. The project partners will investigate whether they can place measuring equipment in feedlots in the open air, but this also requires training of the cows and sheep.
Bacteria
The methane is created when the feed is broken down by bacteria in the ruminant's stomach. 'So we are also going to collect data from the rumen microbiome of the animals, because that microbiome is also genetically determined. There is no single mechanism that causes high or low methane emissions; it is a complex characteristic that is influenced by multiple genes and environmental factors.'
The project is funded through University Fund Wageningen by two philanthropic organisations. The Global Methane Hub is an international NGO that aims to reduce methane emissions in the world and the Bezos Earth Fund is the fund of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos that finances climate and nature projects. Among the partners are many leading research organisations in the field of animal breeding. Other important
partners are the International Committee for Animal Recording (ICAR), which is responsible for a global standard for recording livestock data, and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), which conducts and supervises research in Africa.
Climate-neutral
The Netherlands has committed to international policy to reduce methane emissions by 30% in 2030 compared to 2020. Veerkamp expects that methane emissions will become increasingly important in the livestock sector. 'Dairy company Friesland Campina was also involved in our Dutch project, because it has clear targets to work towards a climate-neutral dairy production. This company already gives farmers a higher milk price if they reduce their CO2 emissions. In the future, dairy companies are also expected to include breeding values in their credit schemes, so that farmers are rewarded for a livestock with low methane values.
