Ground-breaking new portable technology to measure methane emissions from cattle “on farm” will bolster efforts to
reduce the climate change impact from livestock in New Zealand and overseas.
The Portable Accumulation Chambers, developed by crown research institute AgResearch, are designed to be transported by
road to farms or central locations where the cattle can be quickly and efficiently tested to see how much methane they
naturally emit. These measures will help farmers understand what the climate change impact is from their herd and
individual animals and assist in breeding lower emitting animals.
Methane is a relatively short-lived but potent greenhouse gas emitted by ruminant animals such as cattle, and methane
reduction targets are included in climate change legislation. Breeding animals that naturally emit less methane is one
way of achieving reductions without cutting stock numbers. It is already proven in sheep, and low-methane dairy cow
genetics are expected be in the market in the next few years.
Like the portable accumulation chambers already in use by AgResearch for sheep in New Zealand, the portable cattle
chambers provide further options on top of testing methods already in use, such as fixed “respiration chambers” which
are located in a facility Palmerston North and require the animals to be transported there and spend extended periods in
those fixed chambers.
“This is a first using a portable system like this to measure methane emissions from cattle,” says AgResearch senior
scientist Dr Suzanne Rowe.
“We’ve built a relatively simple chamber that can go where the animals are. The cow walks into the chamber and we
capture all of the gas that’s emitted from that animal for just one hour. We then use this data to rank animals
according to their emissions. We’ve been doing this for many years with sheep, with thousands of measures on farms
around New Zealand, and we’ve been able to prove that is an accurate and effective method.”
Welfare of the animals is carefully monitored when using these portable chambers for both cattle and sheep, and in the
rare event they become stressed they are removed from the chambers.
“We think the portable cattle chambers will be an important addition to the toolbox for farmers, in addition to the
fixed respiration chambers. We will use the portable chambers alongside the feed efficiency monitoring we already do,
but there is also preliminary evidence in sheep that the measures taken in the cattle chambers may provide us some
important insights on feed intake and evaluating feed efficiency, as well as methane emissions.”
The use of the portable chambers and development of low methane genetics is part of a wider nationwide effort with
partners such as LIC, CRV, Pāmu, Beef + Lamb New Zealand and the Ministry for Primary Industries to support farmers to reduce their emissions.
Dr Rowe says the chambers offer benefits not just for New Zealand, but also for other nations that farm livestock.
“Our portable sheep chambers are now in use in other countries such as the UK, supporting their efforts to reduce farm
emissions. We are looking forward to trialling the portable cattle chambers overseas, particularly in countries where
they have extensive grazing systems and don’t have the infrastructure such as fixed respiration chambers that we are
fortunate to have in New Zealand.”AgResearch’s world-leading research on breeding low methane sheep, and development of measurement technology, has been
recognised with several awards. Read more at: https://www.agresearch.co.nz/news/world-first-research-to-breed-low-methane-livestock-recognised/