What's the connection between livestock and methane?
To understand why cows naturally produce methane, it's important to understand how they eat. Cattle, sheep and goats are known as 'ruminant' animals. They have a digestive system that allows them to eat otherwise indigestible foods (such as grass) by regurgitating it as "cud" and rechewing it. To aid digestion their stomachs are filled with bacteria that break down the cud, producing methane in the process.
Carbon that is stored in plants is consumed by livestock when they graze. Some of it is then released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide when the animals breathe it out and as methane when the animals digest their food. Methane in the atmosphere is eventually transformed to carbon dioxide and water. Carbon dioxide is then re-absorbed by plants as they grow and the cycle continues.
About methane
Methane (CH4) is a greenhouse gas that the International Panel on Climate Change estimates is between 21-23 times the potency of carbon dioxide.
While the livestock industry contributes approximately 25% of anthropogenic methane levels globally, it is interesting to note that methane levels in the atmosphere have remained relatively stable since 2000, despite significant increases in livestock numbers globally. Other contributors to methane are wetlands, termites, rice growing, fossil fuel use, landfill methane gas and industrial processes.
Reducing Emissions from Livestock Research Program
Meat and Livestock Australia is coordinating and jointly funding a $28million program on behalf of, and in partnership with, the Federal Government. The Reducing Emissions from Livestock Research Program (RELRP) brings together major research groups in Australia, with expertise in the science of rumen biology and livestock management to collaborate on developing practical on-farm options for reducing methane emissions from livestock whilst increasing productivity. In addition research is being undertaken to develop technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from animal waste in feedlots.
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"By getting grazing management right, we can actually store more carbon in the soil than we emit from the animals, which means we can have a positive effect on reducing Australia's greenhouse emissions."
WA farmer, Jim McGregor.
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