When Canadian dairy farmer Ben Loewith's calves are born next spring, they will be among the first in the world to be bred with a specific environmental goal: burping less methane.
Loewith, a third-generation farmer in Lynden, Ontario, in June started artificially inseminating 107 cows and heifers with the first-to-market bull semen with a low-methane genetic trait.
Burps are the top source of methane emissions from cattle. Semex, the genetics company that sold Loewith the semen, said adoption of the low-methane trait could reduce methane emissions from Canada's dairy herd by 1.5% annually, and up to 20%-30% by 2050. Some dairy industry officials remain unconvinced about low-methane breeding, saying it could lead to digestion problems.
Lactanet in April released the world's first national genomic methane evaluation, and has produced results from Holstein cows and heifers on 6,000 farms, representing nearly 60% of Canada's dairy farms.by University of Guelph and University of Alberta scientists to measure the methane of dairy cattle.
Selecting for the low methane trait could lock in lower and lower emissions for successive generations, she said.
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