SRUC researchers have been awarded nearly £700,000 for equipment that will form part of an ultra-modern research facility to measure all emissions from beef cattle, supporting the UK Government’s goals to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
The winning project, ‘UltraGreenCow: Comprehensive greenhouse gas and ammonia emissions measurement capacity for large ruminant production’, is one of 29 projects to receive funding from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) for mid-range equipment for biosciences research.
The UltraGreenCow project, which will build upon SRUC’s existing GreenCow facility, will be one of the few locations in the world which can measure all emissions from livestock (including methane, nitrous oxide, ammonia and carbon dioxide). The increased knowledge of trade-offs between these pollutants will provide essential data for mitigation measures, such as feed additives, at a time when farmers are under intense pressure to reduce emissions.
“In the UK, agriculture is responsible for 11% of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and 87% of ammonia emissions. Around 50% of GHGs and 75% of ammonia emissions from agriculture are associated with livestock or their wastes,” said project co-lead Gemma Miller. Rreducing emissions of these gases from agriculture is vital to meeting climate commitments but “there is a real risk that implementing a mitigation measure to reduce one gas could lead to increases in one or more of the others”, she added.
Many food companies are looking at feed additives as a means to reduce methane emissions from dairy and beef cows in their supply chains. A number of major supermarkets and foodservice companies have projects underway.
The current issue of the Journal of Dairy Science carries a paper from Alexander Hristov, professor dairy nutrition at PennState college of agricultural sciences in the US, relating to the potential of feed supplements to curb emissions.
“Overall, if currently available mitigation practices prove to deliver consistent results and novel, potent, and safe strategies are discovered and are practical, nutrition alone can deliver up to 60% reduction in enteric [methane] emissions from dairy farms in the United States,” he wrote.
