Measurement of the methane of output of individual cattle when housed and grazed.

奶牛和肉牛排放的温室气体约占英国温室气体排放量的7%。为了达到英国政府到2050年净零排放的目标，这一数字必须减少。牛产生的主要温室气体是甲烷，它是在牛羊的第一个胃或瘤胃的消化过程中产生的，然后喷出。本次招标购买的资本设备将允许在圈养或放牧牧场时准确测量牛的呼吸中呼出气体（如甲烷）的输出。这一点很重要，因为目前的技术要么非常昂贵，要么不准确，要么不允许在奶牛放牧牧场或作为一个群体饲养时测量甲烷。该设备将被用于研究减少甲烷产生的饮食方法（例如，使用豆科牧草如三叶草或油）、饲料添加剂以减少甲烷产生（例如天然存在的化合物，如皂苷、单宁、精油或合成化合物）、放牧系统（例如，混合物种草地），操纵瘤胃微生物组以降低产甲烷细菌的活性，以及评估牛中产生甲烷的遗传差异。这些信息还将用于开发非侵入性方法来预测牛的甲烷排放量，例如牛奶中的独特标记。

Dairy and beef cattle contribute approximately 7% of the UK's greenhouse gas emissions. To reach the UK governments target of net zero by 2050 this must be reduced. The main greenhouse gas produced by cattle is methane that is produced during the digestive process in the first stomach, or rumen of cattle and sheep, and then belched out. The capital equipment purchased in this bid will allow the output of exhaled gases such as methane to be accurately measured in the breath of cattle when housed or grazing pasture. This is important because current techniques are either very expensive, inaccurate, or do not allow methane to be measured when cows are grazing pasture or housed as a group. The equipment will be used to investigate dietary means to reduce methane production (e.g. the use of legumes forages such as clover, or oils), feed additives to reduce methane production (e.g. naturally occurring compounds such as saponins, tannins, essential oils, or synthetic compounds), grazing systems (e.g. mixed species swards), manipulation of the rumen microbiome to decrease the activity of methane producing bacteria, and evaluation of genetic differences in cattle to produce methane. The information will also be used to develop non-invasive methods to predict the methane output from cattle such as unique markers in milk.