Helping dairy producers reduce methane emissions through bull selection

Farmers who want to produce a lower methane allocation in their milking herd within three years need to take bull selection into account this year, says Drew Sloan, Vice President for Corporate Development at Semex, addressing the recent EastGen AGM in Elora.

Semex is working with dairy processor Lactanet and the University of Guelph on methane reduction research, funded by various organizations including the  Ontario Agri-Food Innovation Alliance, a collaboration between the Government of Ontario and the University of Guelph, and taking place, in part, at the Ontario Dairy Research Centre, which is owned by the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario and managed by U of G through the Alliance. 

Genetics is one of the lowest cost dairy farm inputs yet responsible for 67 per cent of the increase in milk supply in the last 60 years.

“We can start the journey to halving methane in the next 60 years in a completely natural way,” said Sloan referring to genetic selection based on methane efficiency.

Read the article in Ontario Farmer: Making bulls available for methane reduction huge focus for Semex