Climate Smart Beef Genetics - Innovative approaches to the reduce environmental impact of the UK beef supply chain

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Genus is providing targeted genetic solutions for farmers to create more value for the beef supply chain. Internal trials have demonstrated the superiority of targeted genetics for increasing supply chain profitability relative to traditional practices. Beef calves that are more efficient will reduce carbon footprint are increasingly demanded by supply chain stakeholders to achieve UK carbon reduction targets. Genus and SRUC have carried out ground-breaking research on beef cattle showing the potential of ruminal microbiome-driven breeding to mitigate methane emissions with an expected reduction of up to 17% per generation (Martínez-Álvaro et al., 2022) and improvement of feed conversion ratio by up to 15% per generation. A conservatively estimated 10% reduction in GHG emissions in Genus-influenced animals alone, for example, is a 337,000 metric tons reduction per year in the UK, which is permanent and increasing with ongoing genetic improvement.