WELLINGTON – New Zealand cows walk into the Portable Accumulation Chambers, which will capture all the gas emitted from the animal for just one hour before the data is used to rank animals according to their emissions.
This ground-breaking new portable technology to measure methane emissions from cattle “on farm” will bolster efforts to reduce the climate change impact from livestock in New Zealand and overseas, New Zealand scientists said on Wednesday, reported Xinhua.
The Portable Accumulation Chambers, developed by government research institute AgResearch, are designed to be transported by road to farms or central locations where the cattle can be quickly and efficiently tested to see how much methane they naturally emit, said AgResearch senior scientist Suzanne Rowe.
These measures will help farmers understand what the climate change impact is from their herd and individual animals, and assist in breeding lower emitting animals, Rowe said, adding that it is part of a wider nationwide effort with partners, such as Beef + Lamb New Zealand and the Ministry for Primary Industries, to support farmers to reduce their emissions.
Methane is a relatively short-lived but potent greenhouse gas emitted by ruminant animals such as cattle, and methane reduction targets are included in climate change legislation.
Breeding animals that naturally emit less methane is one way of achieving reductions without cutting stock numbers. It is already proven in sheep, and low-methane dairy cow genetics are expected to be in the market in the next few years, Rowe said.
Like the portable accumulation chambers already in use by AgResearch for sheep in New Zealand, the portable cattle chambers provide further options on top of testing methods already in use, such as fixed “respiration chambers”, which require the animals to be transported there and spend extended periods in those fixed chambers, she said.
“This is a first using a portable system like this to measure methane emissions from cattle,” Rowe said, adding that the chamber can go where the animals are.
The welfare of the animals is carefully monitored when using these portable chambers for both cattle and sheep, and in the rare event that they become stressed, they will be removed from the chambers, said the scientist.
The measures taken in the cattle chambers may provide some important insights on feed intake and evaluating feed efficiency, as well as methane emissions, she said, adding that the chambers offer benefits not just for New Zealand, but also for other nations that farm livestock.
New Zealand’s portable sheep chambers are now in use in other countries such as Britain, supporting their efforts to reduce farm emissions, and are expected to be used particularly in countries where they have extensive grazing systems, according to AgResearch.- Bernama
