Section 20: Activities: Difference between revisions

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=== Sheep ===
=== Sheep ===
This project focusses on recording methane phenotypes on the animals in the various populations, but in each case, those animals will be recorded for a range of other production, health, product quality and welfare traits (the exact suite of traits varies between  countries). This ensures that it will be possible to determine the genetic relationships between methane traits and the other traits included in current and future selection indexes and breeding programs – meaning that breeders  will be able to make informed decisions on any trade-offs between methane and other traits. If you have questions about the sheep project specifically, you can contact Daniel Brown, dbrown2@une.edu.au  
This project focusses on recording methane phenotypes on the animals in the various populations (Table 2), but in each case, those animals will be recorded for a range of other production, health, product quality and welfare traits (the exact suite of traits varies between  countries). This ensures that it will be possible to determine the genetic relationships between methane traits and the other traits included in current and future selection indexes and breeding programs – meaning that breeders  will be able to make informed decisions on any trade-offs between methane and other traits. If you have questions about the sheep project specifically, you can contact Daniel Brown, dbrown2@une.edu.au  
 
This project covers five main areas:
 
* Phenotyping and reference populations. Fast tracked phenotyping and  genotyping up to 16,000 records of methane traits across the key countries to facilitate accurate international evaluation of animals.
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This project covers five main areas:
* Phenotyping and reference populations. Fast tracked phenotyping and  genotyping up to 16,000 records of methane traits across the key countries to facilitate accurate international evaluation of animals (Table 2).
* Genetic evaluation and models. Breeding values based on international genomic evaluation models to share the benefits of the established reference populations.
* Genetic evaluation and models. Breeding values based on international genomic evaluation models to share the benefits of the established reference populations.
* Proxies. Development and validation of new phenotyping methods to expedite genetic progress.
* Proxies. Development and validation of new phenotyping methods to expedite genetic progress.
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=== Africa ===
=== Africa ===
If you have questions about the Africa project specifically, you can contact Raphael Mrode, raphael.mrode@sruc.ac.uk
This project focused on three regions of Africa (Eastern, Western and Southern Africa). It will will leverage and  accelerate on-going early research on GHG in these regions, strongly build capacity and team up with researchers to record CH<sub>4</sub>, other economic productive traits and use the records to implement breeding strategies to reduce CH<sub>4</sub> emission while simultaneously enhancing productivity, food security and employment opportunities in the dairy and beef cattle farming systems; The source of livelihood for many poorly resourced farmers.
 
Tapping into the existing breeding program infrastructure for improved productivity for dairy cattle in the three regions of Africa, this project will result in overall program that will accelerate genetic progress through focus on phenotyping, genotyping and the use of information microbiome in the genetic selection of animals in the smallholder dairy system. The overall impact will be better mitigation of negative effects of climate change and more productive cows. Through selection programs based on the index developed with the phenotypic and genomic information from this project. If you have questions about the Africa project specifically, you can contact Raphael Mrode, raphael.mrode@sruc.ac.uk


=== Latin America ===
=== Latin America ===

Revision as of 08:44, 6 August 2025

NOTE: This version of Section 20 has been approved by the working group's Chair. Please be aware that further revisions may occur before final review and approval by the Board and ICAR members per the Approval of Page Process.

Global Methane Genetics

The Global Methane Genetics (GMG) initiative is a global program to accelerate genetic progress in methane emission in ruminants in the Global North and South. This WUR-ABG coordinated initiative is funded by the Global Methane Hub and the Bezos Earth Fund, both based on philanthropic funds to support methane mitigation and prevent global warming. If you have questions about the GMG initiative you can send an email to gmg@wur.nl, contact Roel Veerkamp: roel.veerkamp@wur.nl or Birgit Gredler-Grandl: birgit.gredler-grandl@wur.nl.

The initiative hold the following projects:

Dairy Cattle

We can look to nature to reduce CH4 emissions and use genetic diversity to provide solutions. Genetic improvement, based on identifying animals with genetic predisposition for lower CH4 output and using them to breed for the next generations, is a reliable, cost-effective, and permanent method for transforming livestock's impact on the environment.  Breeding programs in dairy cattle are run within breeds and across countries. Therefore, the program will accelerate genetic progress by focusing on four major dairy breeds and organizations and countries involved in those breeds. Additionally, the program will acquire considerable leverage through investments in these countries. If you have questions about the dairy cattle section you can contact Birgit Gredler-Grandl: birgit.gredler-grandl@wur.nl.

Holstein breed

The largest data collection has been for the Holstein breed, but there is a lack of standardization and protocols in terms of equipment and its utilization (farm level, data processing, data sharing agreements, genetic evaluations, and data collections). Governments and breeding organizations in Denmark and the Netherlands will collaborate and collect methane and genotypes on more than 20,000 Holstein cows for the GMG database. Also, Poland and Italy team up to collect data for the GMG database, and their aim is also to collect more than 20,000 Holstein animals and develop genetic evaluations across a wide range of systems.

Denmark-The Netherlands

This collaboration between Aarhus University and Wageningen Livestock Research has five main goals. The contact person for questions about this project is Trine Villumsen: tmv@qgg.au.dk.

  • Setting up Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for measuring methane using sniffers
  • Setting up international protocols to measure methane on commercial farms
  • Develop software tools to automate the processing of data into a phenotype
  • Combine historical data in both countries for genetic evaluations
  • Measure enteric methane in 20.000 new cows.
Poland-Italy

This collaboration has the following main goals. The contact person for questions about this project is Raffaella Finocchiaro raffaellafinocchiaro@anafibj.it.

  • Measure enteric methane in 20.000 new cows.

Jersey breed

Currently, due to the limited data available, the Jersey dairy breed does not have breeding values for methane (CH4) mitigation. The goal of the program is to collect methane genotypes in Canada and Denmark and share this information with the GMG database. The aim is to develop breeding values that will be distributed through the World Jersey Cattle Bureau organization and national Jersey organizations in Australia, Canada, Switzerland, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and New Zealand. If you have questions about the Jersey breed section you can contact Rasmus Bak Stephansen rasmus.stephansen@qgg.au.dk

Brown Swiss breed

The Brown Swiss (BS) breed faces significant challenges due to its small population size, an divers environments the animals are kept. A collaboration between Germany, Switzerland, and Austria to phenotype enough animals is a prerequisite for utilizing the genetic potential of reducing methane emission of the BS breed. In addition to a population of 250 cows recorded with Greenfeed, and 1250 with the sniffer, progress will be accelerated by recording an additional 3,360 cows with sniffers. If you have questions about the Brown Swiss breed section you can contact Elena Frenken: fe@fbf-forschung.de.

Red breeds

The red breeds are important for crossbreeding in many countries around the world. The project aims to share and collect CH4 data from Red Dairy Cattle (RDC) breeds (in the Nordic countries, Canada, and the United Kingdom (UK)) and share it with the Global Methane Genetics (GMG) Hub. Together, they will set up a shared genetic evaluation for bulls used for crossbreeding in many more countries. If you have questions about the Red breed section you can contact Elisenda Rius-Vilarrasa: Elisenda.Rius-Vilarrasa@vxa.se.

Beef Cattle

Bluegrass (global beef)

All industries world-wide have been challenged with reducing emissions and beef is no exception. Genetic selection and specifically genomic selection have been identified as key tools to help meet this challenge. Methane emissions are not a local problem, but a global one and several major beef producing countries who exchange genetic material have, are, and will be collecting methane phenotypes for the purpose of genomic prediction. Individually (including those in Australia), these datasets will be limited in their genomic prediction accuracy. The BLUEGRASS alliance will bring together the key players globally, who collectively have solicited key seed funding from the Global Methane Hub. By sharing data and resources, the development of necessary reference populations will be accelerated. Locally or globally, success in the beef genetics industry has been a model of ‘co-opetition’. Breeders, although competitors, pool resources to build tools that can be used by all to compete with one another. This BLUEGRASS alliance is no different. A global alliance will come together to address this challenge, with or without Australia. Having Australia lead and ignite the alliance with MDC co-funding will create opportunities to direct this global initiative and provide first mover advantages for Australian breeders.  

The program is focused on building genomic reference datasets for the main beef breeds in the collaborating countries. The animals to be recorded will be intensively recorded for other production traits, and genotyped, outside this project itself. In each country, trial or research breeding values will be produced and delivered to industry during the life of the project – enabling genetic selection against methane to get underway, and the data will underpin the ability to genomically screen the entire populations of the breeds involved in the respective countries i.e. all seedstock and commercial animals. The data collected will likely assist development of genomic selection against methane in other countries. The accelerated genetic selection and the commercial animal screening will enable real impact to reduce methane from beef cattle. If you have questions about the bluegrass project specifically, you can contact Steve Miller, steve.miller@une.edu.au

Number of phenotypes

This project will phenotype methane traits in beef cattle populations in the US, Australia, the UK, Ireland, and New Zealand. How many phenotypes will be collected per country can be seen in table 1.

Table 1: Number of methane phenotypes per year and per country for the Bluegrass project
Country 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 Total
Australia 700 1.700 2.200 2.400 7.000
New Zealand 325 325 325 325 325 1.625
UK 100 200 250 250 800
Ireland 100 500 500 500 500 2.100
USA 700 1.700 2.200 2.400 7.000
Total 425 2,325 4,425 5,475 5,875 18,525
Breeds and traits included

All countries included in the Bluegrass project have different breeds and different target traits included in their measurements, besides the methane phenotypes.

Australia will focus on Angus and Hereford seedstock with a research population of Angus, Wagyu, Charolais, Shorthorn and Brahman being a target as well. For the seedstock they will focus on seedstock traits plus methane measurements using PAC measures. For the research populations on seedstock traits plus feed intake, carcass as well as methane measurements with PAC.

For New Zealand priority is the progeny test herds. These are mostly Angus, Hereford and their crosses, including a diallel cross design. Some Angus x Simmental. Complete requirements with seedstock herds of Angus and Hereford. Focus is on the following: progeny test, seedstock traits, conception date (via fetal aging) from natural mate at yearling (then re-breeding), carcass grading on steers, feed intake on heifers, rumen microbiome on steers and heifers, seedstock traits from seedstock herds

For the UK focus lies on Angus and Hereford sired animals, both pedigree and crossbred (including from dairy dams) and they focus on liveweights.

For Ireland they include multi-breed/crossbreed. 30% Charolais and Limousin sired from Continental type suckler dams, 30% Holstein-Friesian and 40% beef (mostly Angus) cross dairy. They will focus on feed intake, liveweight and carcass data.

The USA will be measuring Angus focused on seedstock traits from seedstock herds.

US beef

This project will accelerate genetic selection for reduced methane emissions from U.S. and Canadian beef cattle, through phenotyping and genotyping the 18 most influential beef breeds in North America.

The primary activities of this project will center on phenotyping and genetic evaluation of the Germplasm Evaluation (GPE) herd, a large, multibreed resource population at the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center (USMARC) in Nebraska, USA. This herd is structured to represent the genetic diversity of the 18 most influential beef breeds in the U.S.. These 18 breeds are: Angus, Red Angus, Hereford, South Devon, Shorthorn, Beefmaster, Brangus, Brahman, Santa Gertrudis, Braunvieh, ChiAngus, Charolais, Gelbvieh, Limousin, Maine-Anjou, Salers, Simmental, Tarentaise.

Recording of methane phenotypes will occur using multiple approaches to not only maximize the number of phenotypes collected, but to also offer a comparison between methodologies within a U.S. beef production system. Based on these findings and in coordination with other GMG project teams, standard operating procedures for methane phenotyping of beef cattle will be developed and integrated into the Guidelines for Uniform Beef Improvement Programs supporting the evolution of these approaches into standard practice and routine evaluation in any beef breeding system. If you have questions about the US beef project specifically, you can contact Matthew Spangler, mspangler2@unl.edu.

Main goals of this project are:

  • Recording methane phenotypes from at least 5,500 multi-breed genotyped beef cattle and openly sharing to the GMG database and the public domain.
  • Development and publication of uniform guidelines for both methane phenotyping in beef cattle systems and the integration of methane phenotypes into beef genetic evaluations, through the BIF Guidelines wiki.
  • Dissemination and routine updating of genetic parameter and genomic marker effects critical for the development of genetic selection tools and deployment of methane-reducing breeding programs.

Sheep

This project focusses on recording methane phenotypes on the animals in the various populations (Table 2), but in each case, those animals will be recorded for a range of other production, health, product quality and welfare traits (the exact suite of traits varies between countries). This ensures that it will be possible to determine the genetic relationships between methane traits and the other traits included in current and future selection indexes and breeding programs – meaning that breeders will be able to make informed decisions on any trade-offs between methane and other traits. If you have questions about the sheep project specifically, you can contact Daniel Brown, dbrown2@une.edu.au

Table 2: Number of methane phenotypes per year and per country for the sheep project
Country Breed 2026 2027 2028 2029 Total
Australia Merino 2.000 2.000 4.000
Maternal 1.000 1.000 2.000
Terminal 700 700 1.400
Uruguay Merino 170 320 320 100 910
Texel 100 200 200 100 600
Dohne 100 200 200 100 600
Corriedale 130 280 280 200 890
New Zealand Merino 100 500 500 100 1.200
Maternal Comp 200 500 500 200 1.400
Texel 200 500 500 200 1.400
UK Maternal
Terminal 300 300 300 300 1.200
Ireland Maternal Comp 250 250 500
Terminal Comp 250 250 500
Total 1.300 7.000 7.000 1.300 16.600

This project covers five main areas:

  • Phenotyping and reference populations. Fast tracked phenotyping and genotyping up to 16,000 records of methane traits across the key countries to facilitate accurate international evaluation of animals (Table 2).
  • Genetic evaluation and models. Breeding values based on international genomic evaluation models to share the benefits of the established reference populations.
  • Proxies. Development and validation of new phenotyping methods to expedite genetic progress.
  • Breeding Programs. Whole farm system models to incorporate methane into breeding objectives in a balanced way and indexes to facilitate selection of breeding candidates.
  • Education and adoption. Stakeholder engagement campaign and international development to ensure world-wide impact.

Africa

This project focused on three regions of Africa (Eastern, Western and Southern Africa). It will will leverage and  accelerate on-going early research on GHG in these regions, strongly build capacity and team up with researchers to record CH4, other economic productive traits and use the records to implement breeding strategies to reduce CH4 emission while simultaneously enhancing productivity, food security and employment opportunities in the dairy and beef cattle farming systems; The source of livelihood for many poorly resourced farmers.

Tapping into the existing breeding program infrastructure for improved productivity for dairy cattle in the three regions of Africa, this project will result in overall program that will accelerate genetic progress through focus on phenotyping, genotyping and the use of information microbiome in the genetic selection of animals in the smallholder dairy system. The overall impact will be better mitigation of negative effects of climate change and more productive cows. Through selection programs based on the index developed with the phenotypic and genomic information from this project. If you have questions about the Africa project specifically, you can contact Raphael Mrode, raphael.mrode@sruc.ac.uk

Latin America

If you have questions about the Latin America project specifically, you can contact Elly Navajas, enavajas@inia.org.uy

Microbiome

If you have questions about the Microbiome project specifically, you can contact Oscar Gonzalez-Recio, oscar.gonzalezrecio@ed.ac.uk

DAFNE

Department of Agriculture and Forest Sciences at the University of Tuscia. Their main purpose is to collect primary emissions data from sniffers and GF to have emissions factors related to the species, breed, physiological state and diet management. They are engaged with ANAFIBJ and sharing data related to Holstein cattle with them for genetic evaluations. Currently they are running trials with sheep and buffalo.

Sheep

For this trial they are comparing 2 grazing methods using 2 groups of Sopravissana sheep, reared at the facility.

  1. Rotational, 18 sheep. Turns every 4 days on strip paddocks. 18 paddocks in total; 6 heads on 3 strip paddocks per turn of grazing. After 24 days the sheep are back to the first three strips.
  2. Continuous, 18 sheep. Continuous grazing on same paddock. 3 paddocks in total; 6 heads per paddock.

Subgroups for both group A and B (6 heads) are randomly arranged every day. The 18 strip paddocks are the same total size as the three continuous paddocks. They have the same number of heads grazing and the same live weight load.

Both groups are balanced for BW, receive the same hay in quantity and quality with ad libitum access and spend the same time at pasture. Daily sampling of the hay and residual per group is done, weekly sub samples of hay and residual are analyzed. In parallel fresh grass is sampled and analyzed to represent the 2 grazing methods.

The GreenFeed is located in the barn, at 9AM this barn is closed for group A and opens for group B and this switches every day. The GreenFeed is the only place they can get concentrates. Nutritional information for this concentrate can be found here. Amount of food and cup drops can be found here.

Trial started end of March 2025 and will last 1.5 months. They are using the GF adapted for small ruminants.

Buffalo

This is a continuous trial which will last 4 months per supplement tested. First they monitor the buffalo for 4 weeks without supplement as a control diet and then there will be an 8 week experimental period with the supplement diet. During the entire period the buffalo are confined to the barn.

The buffalo are separated in two groups, in adjacent pens. One group has access to a milking robot, with the MooLogger from Tecnosens. The other pen has a conventional milking system and the GreenFeed is placed facing this pen.

All buffaloes are fed the same concentrates. Nutritional information for this concentrate can be found here. Amount of food and cup drops can be found here. The buffalo’s in the GF group get the concentrates from the GF and about 1 kg of concentrates during milking operations. The buffalo’s in the sniffer group only get concentrates from the milking robot, which is about 2 kg/head/day.

To account for the emissions recorded individually at different times, they compare the emissions data aggregated on a daily basis. They are using the GF adapted for large ruminants with horns

Presentation materials

SHEEP

Julius van der Werf