A new breeding tool that could help reduce farm emissions has been unveiled by the dairy genetics company Semex.
Delegates at the International Dairy Conference in Glasgow heard that Canadian scientists spent five years analysing milk mid-infrared (MIR) spectroscopy records for 700,000 milk-recorded Holstein cows and concluded that methane emissions could be predicted and substantially reduced using genetic selection.
Semex says the trait is 23% heritable and estimates that after eight or nine generations of breeding using a new index, it could lead to a 20-30% reduction in methane production by 2050 – depending on the selection intensity.
From April, Semex will be offering a methane index on all tested females via its Elevate service to allow dairy farmers to factor in methane into their breeding policy.
Current users of Elevate will have the index added automatically, and specific genomic testing costs £30 per animal.
While the female index is exclusive to Semex, the methane index of Holstein bulls will be more widely available from any UK dairy genetics company in future.
Drew Sloan, the company’s vice-president of corporate development, said: “Right now, methane is the global enemy.
“In many countries the proverbial finger is being pointed at agriculture, specifically cattle, as a culprit. This is another tool to bring down emissions on (the) farm.”
The Canadian company’s vice-president of research and innovation Dr Michael Lohuis said: “This is really significant. We know that genetics has a major role to play in reducing emissions because it is the main way dairy farmers can produce more outputs from fewer inputs with less emissions, but this new technology takes the contribution from genetics to the next level.”
While Mr Sloan conceded that diet plays a big role in emissions, he added: “The studies show that the high (methane) emitters stay highest and lowest emitters stay lowest under any diet over a lactation.
“So we’re very confident that benchmarking genomically we’ll be able to work with the industry –whether processors, retailers, government – and estimate under any different circumstance eventually what’s the guideline from methane from this sort of cow.
“It will be an estimate, but it will be an accurate estimate.”
