Huge variability in how much methane a beef animal emits: UNE research

The project has now recorded emissions from 1000 steers and 650 heifers, across most breeds, from both a feedlot and pasture system and from different locations in NSW, including the North Coast, Trangie and western Sydney.

The mean methane output was 175.57 grams per day, which was higher than expected but partly attributed to the high roughage diet used in the feedlot. Roughage ferments for longer in the rumen and so produces more methane, researchers explained.

The variability, however, ranged from 50g/day out to 400.

Research leader Dr Sam Clark, an animal geneticist from the University of New England, said that variability was crucial because it was the foundation of being able to make genetic change.

Having a large population recorded was key to finding animals that produce less methane - and already it was clear they do exist, he said.

Dr Clark gave a rundown on the initial findings from what will be a four-year project at this month's Angus National Conference, held in Tamworth.

It's a $14.5 million project being funded by UNE, the NSW Department of Primary Industries, Meat & Livestock Australia and Angus Australia, with the component on grain being cattle at UNE's Tullimba research feedlot, where most of the Angus Sire Benchmarking Program steers are fed.

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Dr Clark said for the beef industry, methane was more than just its impact to climate.

"Methane is lost energy that a cow could use to put on extra beef," he said.

"How can we use it to make a more efficient beef production system?"

The research space around methane was not new, he told delegates at the Angus conference as he showed academic papers from as far back as the 1940s on the topic.

Long before there were emissions reduction targets, beef people were looking at methane in relation to efficiency.

"When we are thinking about efficiency it's really about how do we get more from less," Dr Clark said.

"That is, more high quality beef from less inputs - whether those inputs are feed costs or cost to the wider industry like emissions.

"It's an opportunity to get energy to stay in the cow. Instead of being belched out we can turn it into beef."

There are two major ways the beef industry can start to reduce methane emissions, Dr Clark said.

"Using additives is the first - it's a short-term, useful tool where as soon as you start to feed it you see a response," he said.

"But it will come at a cost - every producer who runs beef will pay to feed these additives.

"If we can make long-term genetic progress and redesign the animal to naturally have lower methane emissions, we can save on the cost of these supplement feeds."

So how can we redesign our cows for a future with less methane?

Building a reference dataset for methane production was always going to be the first step, Dr Clark said.

"Measure, measure, measure - and the research team is not only recording methane output but other productivity traits, such as feed efficiency, in conjunction," he said.

The team have 18 green feed units up and running for this purpose. These are a box feeder with a machine that extracts air and runs it through sensors.

The biggest limitation was getting an animal to stick its head in the box in the first place and there was big potential for agtech entrepreneurs in this space, Dr Clark said.

So far, researchers have had up to 85 per cent of animals attend the units, with one group of Angus steers having 100pc attendance. The aim is to have 30 records per head for longer than three minutes.

Recording data was the first step to enable selection for lower methane emission and genetic change was a permanent and cumulative solution, Dr Clark said.

But the selection would have to be not just for lower emissions on its own but with other traits like feed efficiency, eating quality and reproduction.