An animal nutrition researcher says feed efficiency and genetics are keys to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from livestock.
Dr. Mike VanAmburgh from Cornell tells Brownfield many around the world want farmers to reduce the amount of methane produced by a cow’s digestive system. “I think that’s a noble opportunity, but how we’re really going to win this battle is, we really have to figure out how to make a cow more productive. We have to figure out how to get more milk, more butterfat, more protein out of that cow per unit of feed intake.”
VanAmburgh says the dairy industry has made some progress toward that goal, but he says it will take a new way of thinking about cow diets because methane is not the only greenhouse gas farmers will have to deal with in the future.
