Grant: Alliance Grants

The overall objective of this project is to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the cow herd, which is the greatest contributor to GHG produced by the Canadian beef industry. In the first pathway to meeting this objective, the project will evaluate fecal near infrared spectroscopy (NIRs) as a proxy for measuring methane production from individual cattle. A successful proxy will allow for the large-scale measurement of methane emissions in commercial cattle, to develop a genomic index to select for cattle that produce less methane. Feed intake and direct methane emissions will be measured on 2,325 cattle (cows, heifers, steers, bulls) over the project, which will also contribute towards the development of molecular breeding values for genomic methane traits. In the second pathway to meeting this objective, the project will focus on increasing the adoption of genomic tools on commercial farms. Currently, less than 20% of commercial beef producers are using genetic selection, so even if a genomic tool to select low methane emitting cattle was created, industry impact would be low. This project will develop a carbon offset protocol specific to technologies in the cow herd that reduce GHG emissions, with a focus on genetic selection, aiming to incentivize sustainable practice adoption. The project will also engage an industry advisory committee to develop beneficial management practices (BMPs) for genetic selection on commercial farms. These BMPs will be piloted on 50 commercial farms for economic performance, with integration of measurements needed to evaluate the carbon protocol and the quantification prototype. Participating producers will also be interviewed to better understand barriers to adoption of genetic selection and different incentivization strategies. This project spans the entire innovation pipeline, from discovery to adoption, to reduce GHG emissions from the beef cattle while supporting a resilient and profitable industry.