Sustain Sheep project to delve into ovine emissions
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A new international project creating knowledge and infrastructure to incorporate genetic merit for low environmental impact traits into national breeding schemes for sheep is to be led by Teagasc with the support of Sheep Ireland.
The project builds on information generated from a first international project, ‘Grass to Gas’ and will be titled ‘Reducing sheep methane emissions: sustainability in practice via new breeding goals’.
It's funded under the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine's Green ERA-HUB funding programme.
Key sheep breeding nations, including New Zealand, Scotland, Norway, France and Uruguay, are joint partners on the project, which aims to provide a platform for national and global comparison of methane and carbon dioxide emissions for the purpose of selective breeding for lower-emitting animals.
Building on existing and previous project collaborations nationally and internationally, the project uses portable accumulation chambers across all countries for individual animal methane measurements.
In Ireland, performance-recorded animals from the research flock at Teagasc Athenry and the Sheep Ireland Central Progeny Test flocks are participating in the research.
Methane measurement using the portable accumulation chambers is well established at Teagasc, while GreenFeed technology for measuring methane is now in its early stages. However, focusing solely on methane reduction could undermine profit traits, so balancing its economic value within a multi-trait breeding programme is necessary.
The knowledge generated will provide a comprehensive list of recommendations for breeding programmes to be determined in tandem with the economic implications of selecting for low methane sheep.
In Ireland and other countries, research has shown that genetic improvement can be used as a means to meet policy targets for lower Greenhouse gas emissions.
The robust science from this project will provide a mechanism for national and global comparisons to underpin governmental GHG reduction targets for the successful implementation of science into policy and work to encourage farmers to use genetic improvement as a means to reduce GHG emissions from one generation to the next.
