KeyMessages

• Enteric methane emissions from ruminant production are significant and difficult to measure and manage.
• Methane is a short-lived greenhouse gas (GHG) with a greater warming potential, making reductions more impactful for reducing global warming over the next 20 years.
• There is urgency to develop solutions that are cost-effective and practical across all income and production systems as livestock contribute to livelihoods and nutrition.
• Adoption of new practices and technologies will be key to seeing impact. Groups like Dairy Australia act as industry liaisons for bringing the best solutions directly to farmers.
• Considerable opportunity exists to innovate and bring impactful solutions to reality, but existing pathways to adoption are too slow considering our current urgency. We must leverage cross-sector and cross-industry collaboration for the impact we need.

What is the issue?

Reducing methane emissions has been identified as the most time-efficient strategy for meeting critical 2050 climate targets due to the increased warming potential of this greenhouse gas (GHG) and its relatively short lifetime. This strategy specifically targets the 60% of methane emissions caused by human activity, including fossil fuels, waste, and agriculture. Agriculture contributes 40% of all human sources, and of this livestock manure and enteric fermentation are responsible for 32% of all human sourced methane emissions.

Ruminants are essential to the livelihoods of farmers around the world and provide critical nutritional security to billions. Ruminants can convert forages inedible for humans into milk, meat, fuel and fertilizer. Enteric methane is a by-product of ruminant digestion where a complex ecosystem of microbes decompose and ferment difficult to digest feedstuffs.

Worldwide, dairy farming and milk processing account for 2.5-3% of global greenhouse gas emissions. The FAO estimates that there are over 360 million dairy cows on over 130 million farms supporting the livelihoods of over 1 billion people. Dairy provides nutrient- dense nutrition to many billions more, with significant amounts of protein, calories and calcium as well as essential nutrients including vitamin A, vitamin B12, magnesium, selenium and vitamin D.

The diversity of production practices and climatic conditions where ruminants are raised mean there is no silver bullet solution for reducing or even accurately measuring methane emissions. In many regions around the world, including dairy production in Australia, cows spend a significant portion of their lives grazing on large pastures with minimal intervention, making methane emission reductions challenging.

While progress has been made, the majority of available solutions which either directly (e.g., feed additives and methane inhibiting technologies) or indirectly (e.g., highly efficient dairy farming systems) reduce dairy methane emissions have been developed in and for high income countries with cattle in barns or small, controllable areas. With these investments to date, high income countries already have relatively low emissions intensity (emissions produced per kilo of milk).

To tackle the global issue, we must acknowledge that the majority of the world’s milk production happens in open grazing systems, leaving a huge gap in the applicability of existing methane reduction tactics. Further, in low and middle income countries, livelihoods and nutrition security are often closely linked with ruminant farming and affordable solutions with low barriers to adoption are needed quickly. Many of the solutions to reduce methane emissions are still in early development stages and require additional validation and, in some cases, regulatory approval.

How can we reduce methane?

The world needs a significant reduction in methane production from all agricultural sources, including dairy cattle, without adverse impacts on animal health, feed conversion efficiency, milk quality or milk production. To do this, we must expand the search for enteric methane reduction solutions beyond ‘developed countries’, ‘dairy’, and ‘agriculture’ and progress commercialisation of all viable options for diverse production systems and income levels. Reductions will come from further improved livestock management practices, dietary adjustments and low cost methane capture and/or neutralisation.

Part of the solution will come from feed supplements that act as anti-methanogens or provide high quality digestible high protein. Novel feed supplements such as oils, herbs, biochar, and more, can reduce methane emissions but are largely still experimental, especially for grazing systems. Adding small quantities of bromoform rich seaweed such as Asparagopsis, has been found to significantly reduce methane production from enteric fermentation up to 99% in cows when fed in every mouthful. The THRIVE Top 50 company Sea Forest aims to cultivate seaweed for farmers to help reduce feed costs and help them fight against climate change. The insect farming industry is rapidly emerging due to their extreme efficiency and favourable nutrition profile. This is another option for improved feedstuff for dairy operations as a replacement for conventional protein such as soybeans. THRIVE Top 50 companies such as Ynsect and Innovafeed are currently targeting swine and poultry feed replacements, but research indicates promising results in cattle.

Methane emissions abatement can also be targeted through improved manure management, including the adoption of farm-scale anaerobic digesters, and managing manure storage. Advancements are happening quickly here, as is adoption; the Norwegian technology company, N2 Applied, highlighted in this edition of THRIVE’s Top 50, has developed a revolutionary piece of technology that can be installed locally on a farm or biogas plant, to turn liquid manure into sustainable fertiliser using just air and electricity, providing opportunities mostly for large scale operations, such as barn-based dairy production.

Improved management targeting breeding for improved productivity and animal health and fertility also contributes to reduced methane emissions. The opportunities here are vast and include numerous digital platforms, such as Halter, a New Zealand technology company combating labour shortages, increasing pasture utilisation and improving animal health and performance by enabling farmers to remotely shift, virtually fence and proactively monitor the health and fertility of their cows.

Thinking outside the barn, low methane pastures, which may include increasing legumes and high tannin plants, can also lead to a reduction in methane emissions in grazing cattle and ensure a longer-term effect. While much work is still to be done, companies like Inari, another 2023 THRIVE Top 50 company, are developing plant breeding platforms to streamline discovery to commercialization.

What are organizations like Dairy Australia and THRIVE doing to help?

While recent advancements have reduced the global hoofprint of the dairy industry, more is needed to provide solutions at a global scale. We must work together to ensure innovation advancements are region agnostic. Cross-sector and cross-industry collaboration will be key to bringing dairy production to the highest level of sustainability.

Farmers will need to invest time, equipment, and/or training to adopt new practices and achieve meaningful methane emission reduction. Incentives and support will be required to drive global adoption.

Governments, NGOs, and the dairy industry need to work with innovation partners across the agtech ecosystem and other sectors to rapidly identify, prototype and explore ‘out of the box’ ideas. The world can’t afford to rely solely on the traditional research programs and slow adoption pathways. The dairy industry can offer non-financial incentives to attract solution partners, such as access to working dairy farms at all scales and market introductions for testing.

As we tackle climate change together, it is important to take a holistic approach which balances the need to reduce agricultural methane emissions with the need to support nutrition and livelihoods. Organizations like Dairy Australia and THRIVE are working together to make this a reality.