The Teagasc beef enterprise leader, Paul Crosson has admitted that the methane emissions from the Irish grass-based beef system may have been “overpredicted”.
Speaking at a webinar titled ‘AgriTalks Ireland: The Brazilian experience in reducing the carbon footprint in livestock farming‘ which took place on Wednesday (November 30), Crosson explained how the emissions calculation error may have occurred.
The Teagasc beef enterprise leader said: “At present, we use predictive equations [which are] the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) defaults and they’re broadly fine in respect of many of our systems.
“We know and we have evidence that for our pasture-based systems, the methane efficiency metrics, and in particular the methane emissions coefficients, may be overpredicted.”
Crossan told the webinar that the findings are coming from a project Teagasc is currently currently working on in association with Meat Technology Ireland (MTI) with funding also coming from Enterprise Ireland.
The project aims to examine “whole of life methane emissions profile” of cattle.
To address the issue, Crosson outlined: “We [the project partners] are looking at improving and generating Irish specific efficiency metrics.
“The key issue here is conducting the research, getting it published and having it available for implementation then,” he stated.
About the webinar
The online event was hosted by Euractiv and was organised by the Embassy of Brazil in Dublin, as well as the Brazilian trade and investment promotion agency ‘ApexBrasil’.
The panellists were as follows:
- Dr. Paul Crosson, beef enterprise leader, Teagasc Agriculture and Food Development Authority;
- Prof. Tommy Boland, associate dean of research innovation and impact, School of Agriculture and Food Science, University College Dublin;
- Dr. Mariana de Aragao Pereira, senior researcher, Embrapa – Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation;
- Luiza Bruscato, executive manager, Brazilian Roundtable on Sustainable Livestock (GTPS).
Dr. Paul Crosson and Prof. Tommy Boland spoke in detail on the additional measures Ireland is taking to reduce the carbon footprint of its beef production system, while Dr. Mariana de Aragao Pereira and Luiza Bruscato outlined the measures being taken in Brazil.
The webinar heard how the Brazilian livestock sector is also working to improve its sustainability.
Progress on new targets
It was outlined at the webinar that the Irish Government has set a ceiling for agricultural emissions in the form of a 25% reduction in emissions from the sector by 2030 compared to 2018 levels.
It was also outlined that Brazil also has targets to reduce emissions by 2030.
Paul Crosson was asked how is Ireland going to measure the progress towards these new targets.
Responding, Crosson acknowledged: “It’s important we have a system in place where we can measure the level of uptake and what the emissions reductions impact of that is.”
He explained that Teagasc “work closely with the EPA [Environmental Portection Agency] in developing emission factors” and outlined that all data must be published and peer reviewed.
“Where we have new emission factors or where we can show improvement in technologies, they can be implemented and recognised in our inventories.
“From an efficiency perspective, there are three broad approaches.
“If we look at it from the animal side, it’s the reproductive performance at herd level. Secondly, is live weight performance, and the final area of efficiency improvement is around feed management and feed provision.
“If we look at those three areas in our inventory approach, we have opportunities to recognise improvements,” he said.
Commenting on progress, Crosson said: “If we look at age at slaughter in the past 12 years, our beef sector has reduced age at slaughter by on average 60 days.”
He also outlined that genetic improvement is another area that will be examined and said Teagasc “work closely” with the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) on genetic improvement.
“What we are trying to develop at present is a methane efficiency metric or a methane efficiency trait.
“We have evidence of a 30% difference between the top third and bottom third of a cohort of animals (phenotypes rather than genotypes) providing a proof of concept that there are differences available within a population,” Crosson added.
“So clearly we can breed for improvements or reductions in methane emissions,” Crosson concluded.