The ICBF Tully beef performance centre recently installed a GreenFeed system which is designed to measure individual animal methane emissions. The system identifies individual animals via an RFID tag when it uses the feeder, and then measures that animals gas fluxes of methane (CH4) and Carbon Dioxide (CO2).

Speaking at the ICBF and Sheep Ireland genetics conference Conroy said: “Thirty grams of feed is dropped every 30 seconds for a total of three minutes. The animal then emits methane in its breath and a fan then extracts the emissions in-between the feed drops and it passes through a sensor. Finally a sensor determines the amount of methane expelled by the animal in grams per day.”

A total of four GreenFeed systems will test animals at Tully.

Going forward, this will allow ICBF to rank sires in terms of their environmental footprint by collecting relevant data for direct and indirect environmental traits. It will also allow feed intake and methane data to be collected on cows.