A methane-reducing feed additive will be available to Irish beef and dairy farmers operating indoor systems by 2025, a Teagasc representative has said.
Speaking at the 2022 Teagasc National Beef Conference in Ballinasloe, Co. Galway last night (Tuesday, December 13), Teagasc researcher Sinead Waters told farmers: “We hope to have the [methane reducing] feed additives available to farmers for indoor systems by 2025.”
She explained that Teagasc is currently involved in a project called Meth-Abate, which is independently assessing feed additives that have the potential to reduce methane.
Why just indoor systems?
“We have tested products like Bovaer, 3-NOP and other products from elsewhere and we’re making progress,” Waters explained.
“Bovaer and 3-NOP has reduced methane emissions from indoor systems by 30%. It had been tested around the world, but this was the first trial carried out on the island of Ireland and it was very successful.”
However, the product is a powder that must be mixed into a Total Mix Ration (TMR) diet.
“You cannot get it into a pellet in the current format,” Waters explained, adding that this is why it will suit indoor systems but not grass-based systems.
She said that progress is being made on alternative products which may provide a solution.
Research on additives for grass-based systems
Waters continued to say that work is being progressed on ways to get these, or other feed additives, into a nut that could be delivered on-farm.
“There’s certain feed additives from Irish industry partners. A Calcium Peroxide-type additive has given us similar results and we can actually get it into a nut and deliver it on farms,” she said.
“The area we want to push is trying to make these additives applicable in pasture-based systems.
“Any feed additive that’s going to be applicable here in Ireland will have to be able to apply in grazing systems.”
A farmer in the crowd asked Waters: “How far are we away from a bolus being given to cattle to tackle methane emissions at grass?”
The Teagasc research officer responded: “In the last few years we have got to a stage where we can actually put something into a pellet. In terms of a bolus, that research is really just starting now.
“We hope to have the feed additives available to farmers for indoor systems by 2025 and that stage – from 2025-2030 – that we should have boluses available for feed additives.”
Sinead Watters, researcher in the animal bioscience department at Teagasc Grange, told farmers at the conference: “I’ve a real interest in the rumen and microbiomes and and that extended into researching microbes that produce methane.
“Now I’m researching emissions from ruminants, how we can reduce methane emissions from ruminants and developing methane mitigation strategies that we can ultimately bring to the farm level.”