The Texel Sheep Society is working with a number of international partners, including its long-term R&D partner SRUC, in a new international research project to find new ways of feeding and breeding sheep to reduce their impact on the environment.
Led by researchers from Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) and involving organisations from the UK, France, Ireland, Turkey, Norway, New Zealand and Uruguay, the GrassToGas project combines international scientific and industry expertise to measure two key factors that affect the environmental impact of sheep: feed efficiency – the amount of feed required to produce one unit of meat or milk, and methane emissions.
The project will use state-of-the-art sensor technologies, recording equipment and novel protocols to measure these traits at an individual sheep level.
The goal is to develop new breeding solutions for the industry by finding ways to identify animals with lower environmental impact, which can then be selected as part of genetic improvement programmes.
The first phase of the three-year project, which runs until September 2022, will test different technologies and equipment, such as sensors, imaging techniques, electronic feeders and faecal markers, for their ability to accurately predict feed intake and methane emissions from sheep.
Using promising technologies identified in the first phase, experimental work will then investigate the relationships between feed efficiency and methane emissions from sheep housed and at pasture.
Genetic control of methane emissions and feed efficiency will also be investigated in the project, by assessing the differences due to breed, sire, genetic line or breeding values.
The research at SRUC will use lambs bred from sires sourced from the Texel Sheep Society’s texelplus programme, to investigate the effects of sire and breeding values on these measurements.
The data will be analysed to quantify the economic and environmental benefits of improvements in feed efficiency and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.
Texel Sheep Society R&D manager Ed Smith said: “This is a targeted area of research activity, collaborating with likeminded organisations on a global scale.
“The Society is extremely pleased to have been invited to have a supporting role in such an important topic delivered by a distinguished group of international researchers,” said Dr Smith.
British Texels have become popular across the world over the last 20 years supporting greater efficiencies in sheep production in a variety of climates and forage-based production systems, said Society chief executive John Yates. “The breed has become a major solution to the many sheep industries challenged with improving financial sustainability of their industries, while improving production efficiencies.
“The breed is known for converting lower quality forage to high quality protein effectively, increasing carcass production and ensuring greater resilience to a variety of disease challenges experienced in many different environments.
“The Society’s involvement in this project supports its 10 year strategy laid out in 2017 as the Society continues to progress and engage in relevant research to benefit UK industry productivity, ultimately with the aim of providing new information about Texel sheep for Society members and the wider industry,” he added.
“This project will be supported by the data from the Society’s texelplus performance recording programme, allowing key information to be fed back to breeders in time to enable increased decision making in their breeding flocks.”
Nicola Lambe, a sheep geneticist at SRUC, said: “The reduction in greenhouse gas emissions is a global issue requiring a trans-national and trans-disciplinary approach.
“The project aims to produce tools to measure, or accurately predict, feed efficiency and methane emissions from both individual animals and sheep systems, which will provide the international industry with the means to breed, feed and manage sheep with reduced environmental impact as part of genetic improvement initiatives.
“It will also contribute towards addressing the argument about the effect of eating meat on global warming, with sheep making use of land often unsuitable for other agricultural production.”
The UK part of the project will receive £250,000 in funding from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), Research Council of Norway and New Zealand Ministry for Primary Industries.
