EDINBURGH: Hilda is the first calf from the Langhill herd – based in southern Scotland – born through IVF and bred to produce less methane.
Livestock manure and manure produce methane, a planet-warming greenhouse gas, up to 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. Livestock produces about 30% of global methane emissions, two-thirds of which come from livestock used to produce meat or milk.
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Scottish Dairy has been hailed by vets and scientists as a “hugely important” moment in reducing the industry’s carbon footprint.
Accelerate methane reduction
Mike Coffey, a professor at Scottish Rural College, a university focused on sustainability and a partner in the project, said Hilda is the result of combining three existing technologies.
It is the ability to predict a cow’s methane production based on its DNA, extract eggs at a younger age than before, and fertilize them with sex-sorted semen.
“You mix those three things together [technologies] It also allows you to speed up the process of selecting offspring to reduce methane, one calf at a time,” says Coffey, adding that doing the same thing over and over again for years will result in cows with low methane emissions.
Rob Simmons, from Paragon Veterinary Group, another partner in the project, told PA Media that “genetic improvement of methane efficiency” will be “key to continued food supply nutritious for the public, while controlling the impact of methane emissions on the environment.” in the future.”
The Langhill herd is the focus of the world’s longest-running livestock genetics project and selects cows based on factors such as health, fertility, productivity and feed intake.
Traditional selection based on these traits has so far reduced methane emissions by about 1% per year, Coffey said. He added that the new technique is expected to increase emissions reductions by 50% per year, equivalent to an overall cut in emissions of 30% over the next 20 years.
A Canadian study published last year also suggested that farmers who choose and raise cows to efficiently use methane could reduce emissions by up to 20-30% by 2050.
Enhanced methane reduction in cows
Overall, there are 1.5 billion livestock in the world, an estimated 270 million of which are dairy cows. In 2022, the global dairy industry is worth less than $900 billion.
Coffey said the process of producing a cow like Hilda currently costs twice as much as the economic value of that animal.
“There will be no profit [for farmers] like now. But the purpose of this project is to prove that it can work.”
He said the next steps are to explore what financial support might be available to help scale up. “What levers does the government have to allow them to change the economic environment to help farmers do it in a cost-effective way like they did with electric cars.”
The shift to electric cars is also a good analogy for the pace of change in methane reduction in cows, Coffey said. “There will come a time when they stop making gasoline cars, but the current gasoline cars will continue to exist and it’s like cows.”
However, Coffey emphasized that the project is part of a much broader wave of scientific effort.
In addition to approaches using genetic selection, other projects are looking at the impact of feed additives such as seaweed or capturing methane produced from their excrement into biogas that could fuel for vehicles or home heating.
Langhill herds have also been used in studies exploring how changes in diet and fertilizer use impact the greenhouse gas emissions produced by dairy farming.
“Most other countries in the world are doing the same thing. It’s like an international race to reduce methane emissions from ruminants as quickly as possible,” Coffey said.
Is choosing a variety enough?
According to a recent study, methane emissions are increasing faster than any other greenhouse gas.
Scientists have claimed that technological improvements in farm management cannot reduce these emissions at the scale required to achieve the Paris Agreement target of limiting global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
They argue that the only way to achieve this is to dramatically reduce meat and dairy production and switch to a more plant-based diet.
The meat and dairy industry contributes 12 to 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and accounts for 60 percent of emissions coming from the food system. This is mainly driven by carbon dioxide released through forest clearing for pasture and animal feed, as well as methane from livestock.
According to one study, cutting back on meat and dairy could reduce emissions from the global diet by 17%.
Scientists say a 45% reduction in methane emissions by 2030 could help avoid global warming of 0.3 degrees Celsius.
A recent report from this organization said: “By 2030 alone, according to a normal development trajectory, emissions from the livestock sector will account for nearly 50% of the greenhouse gas emissions budget. ) is consistent with limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Harvard Law School brings together insights from more than 200 climate and agriculture experts.
Despite the growing popularity of plant-based alternatives – such as almond milk and oat milk – in some parts of the world, milk and dairy products are still consumed by around 6%. billion people across the planet consume. And demand is expected to increase steadily over the next decade, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
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Global meat consumption is also predicted to increase 14% by 2030.