Can genomics cope with a 30% reduction of methane emission from livestock in 10 years?

Abstract

Livestock will face an important challenge within the next decade to cope with the objective of cut by 30% methane emissions, as agreed in the COP26. This study summarises the latest genetic parameter estimates between methane, dry matter intake, microbiota composition, and production and body traits in Spanish dairy cattle. We evaluated the expected genetic progress after including methane into the breeding goal under different scenarios. Under the current trend in the cow population size, it is only possible to achieve the objective if methane is included with a large weight in the selection index and it is accompanied of other strategies. This may generate conflict with dairy producers and balanced strategies must be considered.