Low Methane Sheep: Breeding for the future

World-leading, award-winning work by AgResearch scientists has demonstrated that sheep can be bred to produce less methane without sacrificing productivity. Our research has also shown that implementation within the industry can have a real impact on lowering methane emissions in the national flock.

Industry support

With the support of the industry through the Pastoral Greenhouse Gas Research Consortium (PGgRc) and the government, via the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre (NZAGRC), our scientists spent over a decade working on the science and were able to identify genetic differences which influence how much methane an individual sheep produces.

“The livestock industry relies heavily on genetic improvement to remain competitive and the challenge of lowering methane is no different. The results of this research matter for our farmers,” said PGgRC general manager Mark Aspin.

Sheep breeders around New Zealand are embracing low methane genetics and finding positive results first-hand:

“We are seeing an economic advantage of 600-1000 cents in their index for their low methane sires over their higher emitting sires, which confirms that on average, they are selecting for more efficient, high productivity animals which are also lower emitting. For us it’s a no brainer” — Southland sheep breeder Leon Black (Sheep Country edition, Country Wide magazine, Spring 2024).

“Within that cohort of our already top production and disease genetics, we then pick the ones that have the best methane. This year, 87% of our ewe and ram hoggets have negative methane and their NZ maternal worth (NZMW) is 9% higher than the sheep with positive methane”.

“It’s really exciting and in four years, we have dropped our methane on this property by 3.2%, as analysed by AgResearch.” — Waikato sheep breeder Alastair Reeves (Farmers Weekly, September 2024).

Real-world solutions

This research gives the sheep sector a practical tool to help lower our agricultural greenhouse gases:

It gives farmers a technology to mitigate methane emissions on their own farms.
The low methane-emitting flock is healthy, grows more wool and produces leaner meat.
Breeding for low methane-emitting ruminants has the advantage of being permanent and cumulative.

Supreme Award winners at the 2021 Science New Zealand Awards for this breakthrough science, the judges referenced the major significance of this work within Aotearoa New Zealand and the “tangible contribution to the global issue of our time”.

Engineering innovation

This world-first AgResearch achievement also features an engineering innovation in the form of specially designed portable accumulation chambers (AgPAC). These respiration chambers are animal-friendly, enclosed containers used to measure the gas output of ruminants. The AgPAC chambers can be taken onto farms to measure the methane emissions of individual sheep. Animals enter the purpose-built chambers for short periods to measure the gases they produce.

The chambers were designed and built with approval from the New Zealand Animal Ethics Committee. The sheep typically spend less than an hour in the chambers at any one time, and are removed from the chambers if they are in distress. In our experience, sheep appear quite relaxed whilst in the AgPAC chamber.

The next step in testing methane outputs amongst the national flock is the AgPAC trailer, which contains 12 chambers and can travel to and set up on-farm to test up to 86 animals a day to establish baseline figures for a flock. AgResearch currently has four AgPAC trailers operating around the country and has exported several overseas to the United Kingdom, Ireland and Norway.

A sheep leaves the AgPAC trailer on a farm in Otago

This trail-blazing research...has opened up the opportunity for all New Zealand livestock industries to follow suit.

Mark Aspin, General Manager, Pastoral Greenhouse Gas Research Consortium

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Sheep Methane Measurement

Into the future

This technology and the principles have been exported to multiple countries to help researchers and breeders worldwide to select and keep low emitters for breeding.

We are leveraging our knowledge and expertise around low methane-emitting sheep for research into breeding low methane-emitting cattle.

In addition, we are also exploring other methods to reduce methane production from livestock including the development of inhibitors and a vaccine that could be administered to animals to reduce methane emissions.