The New Zealand livestock industry has begun a “global first” program that would help to tackle climate change by breeding low methane-emitting sheep.
There are about six times as many sheep as people in New Zealand and the livestock industry accounts for about one-third of the nation’s total greenhouse gas emissions.
The livestock industry’s peak body, Beef and Lamb New Zealand, already uses a measure called “breeding value” to help breeders select rams with characteristics they want to bolster within their flocks.
Within two years, breeders would be able to select rams whose traits include lower methane emissions.
“Farmers are more interested than I anticipated,” said Russell Proffit, a stud breeder.
His family has been producing rams for more than 40 years.
“I’ve undertaken the [methane] measurements because I believe an animal that is healthy and doing well should produce less methane and I wanted to test that, Proffit said. “I don’t know if that’s the case yet, but either way breeding for less methane complements what we are working to achieve on our stud, that is, more robust rams that require [fewer] inputs and make less demand on the environment.”
Breeders who want to produce low-methane rams will need to measure a portion of their flock in an accumulation chamber, where their gas emissions are measured. Sheep spend 50 minutes in the chamber, and must be measured twice with an interval of more than 14 days.
The resulting data are used alongside other genetic information to calculate a “methane breeding value.”
The pastoral greenhouse gas research consortium, which is jointly funded by the agricultural sector and the New Zealand government, said the concept was to take advantage of variations in levels of methane emissions and research that found the differences were passed on to the next generation.
“This is a global first for any species of livestock,” said Mark Aspin, the consortium’s general manager. “Launching the methane breeding value gives New Zealand’s sheep sector a practical tool to help lower our agricultural greenhouse gases.”
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