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

奶牛和肉牛约占英国温室气体排放量的7%。为了达到英国政府到2050年实现净零排放的目标，必须减少碳排放。牛产生的主要温室气体是甲烷，甲烷在牛和羊的第一个胃或瘤胃的消化过程中产生，然后喷出。在这次竞标中购买的基本设备将允许在饲养或放牧时准确测量牛呼出的气体（如甲烷）的输出。这很重要，因为目前的技术要么非常昂贵，要么不准确，要么不允许在牛吃草或成群饲养时测量甲烷。该设备将用于研究减少甲烷产生的饲料方法（例如，使用豆科牧草，如三叶草或油类）、减少甲烷产生的饲料添加剂（例如，天然存在的化合物，如皂素、单宁、精油或合成化合物）、放牧系统（例如混合种草）、操纵瘤胃微生物群以降低产生甲烷的细菌的活性，以及评估牛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物。

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.