Funding Boost for Environmental Research on Dairy Cows at Harper Adams University
“Our GreenFeed units allow us to undertake robust and practical research that can be used by farmers to ensure that a product that they may wish to use on their farm has data to demonstrate its effect on methane production, is safe and ultimately cost-effective.”
The GreenFeed units being used by PhD student Charlotte Roxborough.
Harper Adams University has recently received a grant of £364,000 to install new equipment that allows methane output from individual dairy cows to be accurately measured.
The grant from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Council (BBSRC) has been used to purchase four GreenFeed units which are currently installed and being used in the Harper Adams Future Farm Dairy Unit. The equipment measures the output when the cows are housed or grazing.
Director of the Animal Science Research Centre, Professor Liam Sinclair, said: “Methane is a gas that is naturally produced by the fermentation of feed in the rumen – or first stomach – of cattle, and represents around an eight per cent loss of energy from the diet. Reducing methane production and diverting this energy into milk or meat will improve feed use efficiency, and therefore increase dairy farmers margins and profitability.”
Some dietary methods or additives to reduce methane also alter the pattern of fermentation in the rumen, which can reduce the incidence of metabolic diseases such as ketosis and fatty liver syndrome in dairy cows.
“These are important diseases in their own right, but also acts as gateway diseases that can lead to other health issues. Reducing their incidence will improve dairy cow health and longevity” added Professor Sinclair.
Methane is also a potent greenhouse gas, although its duration in the atmosphere is short compared to other gases such as carbon dioxide. There is therefore a lot of interest from government and companies to investigate means to reduce the methane output from cattle.
Professor Sinclair said: “It is however very important that any product that is marketed to farmers has been independently and rigorously assessed to ensure that it is effective.
“Our GreenFeed units allow us to undertake robust and practical research that can be used by farmers to ensure that a product that they may wish to use on their farm has data to demonstrate its effect on methane production, is safe and ultimately cost-effective.”
The data generated by the GreenFeed units can also be used to select cows and bulls that naturally produce less methane, and to allow other methods and proxies to be developed that can be more easily used to measure methane production on farm.
“Selecting for lower methane production, and developing easier and less expensive methods to measure methane production on farm are both important goals that the data from our GreenFeed units can help to achieve” added Professor Sinclair.
The GreenFeed units are currently being used by PhD student Charlotte Roxborough, who is investigating the effect of essential oils when supplied in the feed or via a slow release bolus in the cow’s rumen.
She said: “Most additives to reduce methane production in cattle have to be included in the diet or fed as supplements.
“This is great when the cows are housed, but there is a large number of cattle that are grazed and do not receive any supplementation. Providing an effective product in a slow release bolus will therefore allow methane production to be reduced in grazing animals as well as when housed.