Groundbreaking industry wide three-year £3m DEFRA funded research project outcomes.
Sheep farmers will have the opportunity to help reduce their flock’s carbon footprint through both improved ewe efficiency and lower methane emissions following the results from Breed for CH4nge, a ground-breaking three-year £3m research project funded from DEFRA's Farming Innovation Programme, delivered by Innovate UK and featuring 11 industry wide partners led by Innovis.
Data from 13,581 lambs measured across 40 flocks along with flock data related to ewe efficiency confirmed methane emission is heritable resulting in the development of a new breeding value (EBV) for methane output. This EBV feeds into the new Breed for CH4nge index that ranks animals on their breeding potential for a naturally low carbon footprint, Innovis geneticist, Dr Janet Roden told a media briefing on Wednesday 27 May.
These new breeding tools will be available this season for maternal rams from Innovis and will soon be available across the other progressive, performance-recording maternal sheep breeder groups involved in the project - Sheep Improvement Group (SIG), Performance Recorded Lleyn Breeders (PRLB) and Centurion Group of Dorset Sheep Breeders, she said.
Furthermore, the Breed for CH4nge index will be made available to all other maternal performance recording sheep breeders via Signet, providing them with the opportunity to reduce enteric methane, currently contributing 50% to 60% of a sheep enterprise’s carbon footprint. Innovis will be offering the Portable Accumulation Chamber (PAC) measurement service – the trailer predicting methane emissions from grazing sheep used to develop the project’s farm protocols aligned with other countries including Ireland, New Zealand and Australia.
“Breed for CH4nge always aimed to inform and be made use of by the wider sheep industry and breeders. One of the outcomes is the new Breed for CH4nge index which I hope all sheep breeders can look at and make use of what this project has achieved,” commented Phil Stocker, chief executive NSA, one of the project partners along with AHDB, UK Agri-Tech Centre (UKATC), Harper Adams University (HAU), SRUC, Pilgrim’s Europe and Waitrose.
SRUC’s sheep geneticist, Dr Nicola Lambe said: “This project has provided a hugely important, high quality data set, collected from industry flocks which has enabled us to unpick the genetic control of methane emissions and the underlying mechanisms affecting them. The increased understanding has allowed breeding tools to be designed that can help optimise UK sheep’s productivity and sustainability, positioning UK research among the world-leaders in breeding for reduced methane emissions from sheep.”
Dr Janet Roden continued: “Sheep and cattle emissions are not always easy conversations because we often feel they’re unfairly portrayed in the popular press, however we believe this project has helped to identify the win-win solutions that can benefit both the farmer’s bottom line and the environment, consequently it offers them a sustainable route to improving their product’s environmental credentials while helping to address consumers’ concerns over the footprint of the meat they eat.”
The project also provided an opportunity for the flocks involved to build robust data sets for other heritable traits likely to influence the flock’s carbon footprint, for example resistance to gut worms, ewe weight and body condition, alongside genomic profiles.
Innovis CEO, Dewi Jones commented: “This information has helped to understand the relationships between these traits. The data, which so far suggests that there are no real antagonisms with other traits that are directly related to the ewe and lamb’s performance and health, is being fed into improving the EBV accuracy for the breeds involved. This in turn will help to improve ewe efficiency and health in UK grass and forage systems and reduce carbon footprint.
“However we were surprised by the scale of difference in emissions between lambs even within groups that had all been managed together from birth. Furthermore, feed intake measurements of individual lambs has shown that the most efficient lambs ate 20% less feed but grew at the same rate as less efficient lambs, however, this was not reflected in differences in methane emissions. Both daily intake of the lambs and their feed efficiency appear to be highly heritable and so likely to be passed onto the next generation, a very encouraging finding.”
Dr Nicola Lambe went on to combine data from the Breed for CH4nge project and other research projects carried out in Scotland, Wales and Ireland to show that there is a genetic relationship between smaller rumens and lower methane emissions. She explained: “The implication of this ground-breaking research is the need for further investigation, however it strengthens the team’s belief that the methane breeding values should always be used alongside other performance measures to guard against unintended reductions in efficiency and profitability.
“Perhaps the most exciting finding, and one that confirms work carried out in New Zealand, is that differences in the rumen microbiome of animals appears to have a strong association with differences in their methane emissions. Again, further research is needed to establish to what extent these differences can be passed from generation to generation and to develop cost effective on-farm tests that will enable these differences to be harnessed in a breeding programme.”
-ends-
Further information from Dr Janet Roden, janetroden@innovis.org.uk 07967 117379
Issued by liz@lizsnaithconsultants.com 07974 678833
Notes for editors
The 11 project partners
Innovis together with other progressive, performance-recording maternal sheep breeder groups including Sheep Improvement Group (SIG), breeding the Exlana, Performance Recorded Lleyn Breeders (PRLB) and the Centurion Group of Dorset Sheep Breeders.
Scientific input, technology and additional genetics expertise provided by Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) and Harper Adams University (HAU). Signet Breeding Services, part of AHDB, provided performance recording services. Industry and supply chain partners UK Agri-Tech Centre (UKATC), Pilgrim’s Europe and Waitrose, helped steer farm system modelling including the use of carbon calculators and drove an integrated knowledge exchange (KE) programme. National Sheep Association (NSA) provided a direct and important link with the wider industry and a ‘guiding hand’ regarding policy issues.
Engaging the industry
The Breed for CH4nge team, with assistance from NSA and UKATC ,has over the last three years delivered more than 180 talks, articles and events to explore the potential of reducing carbon footprint through sustainable, data informed, breeding strategies with fellow breeders and producers, industry professionals and the international scientific community.
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