Innovis leads Breed for CH4nge project for low methane sheep

Breed for CH4nge is a new project that has been awarded a £2.9m grant from Defra's Farming Innovation Programme to carry out an industry-wide programme designed to breed sheep with a naturally low carbon footprint, which in turn should make a positive contribution to UK agriculture’s journey towards net zero.

While most of the project will be based on testing sheep on farms in England, when the funding comes from Defra, two of the 45 flocks are in Scotland to include one in Perthshire and another on a nucleus Innovis farm in the Borders which supplies performance-recorded rams and Cheviots.

However, with only sheep from well recorded flocks able to be used, most of the UK's sheep breeds are excluded. It is believed that only 15-20% of maternal-breeding rams are bought on figures against up to 40% of terminal sires.

Sheep chambers

Hence, many of the sheep in the programme are from performance-recorded composites from the breeding technology company, Innovis which is leading the project. It has however partnered with other progressive, performance-recording maternal sheep breeder groups to include the Sheep Improvement Group (SIG), breeding the Exlana, Performance Recorded Lleyn Breeders (PRLB) and the Centurion Group of Dorset Sheep Breeders to deliver the research and host on farm events.

Commenting on the reasons for using only performance recorded sheep, Dewi Jones, chief executive of Innovis said: “We can only measure methane outputs along with other traits that are currently being recorded. Measuring methane on its own as a snapshot within any breed is a futile and potentially dangerous excercise which could result in unintended consequences which nobody wants to see."

As a result, he said a well recorded population of animals is needed to see how the methane measurements and rankings fit in with other traits and to see whether reducing methane has an impact on an animal's performance.

Mr Jones also added that once initial findings come through, it is hoped to introduce other breeds alongside supply chain partners and other industry bodies to include the National Sheep Association and Signet.

Although not the first country in the world to look into breeding low methane sheep, the UK is able to base its programme on the success of others and will include the use of Portable Accumulation Chambers (PAC) to predict methane emissions from grazing sheep alongside measuring health, production and efficiency traits at individual animal level.

Further measurements, including rumen size and microbiota, will improve understanding of the underlying biology and ensure that reductions in methane emissions positively contribute to sustainable genetic improvement of ewe productivity on UK grass and forage.

This data will enable understanding of the genetic control of these characteristics and DNA sampling will allow relationships with the underlying genome of the sheep to be investigated. This will result in tools to compare the breeding value of sheep in the flocks, idenitifying breeding stock that will contribute to improving farm carbon footprint.

SRUC’s Nicola Lambe said: “This project will build on international research on breeding to reduce methane emissions from sheep, to the point of industry implementation in UK flocks. The range of data being collected, will allow us look at relationships of methane emissions with other traits that are important for productivity and sustainability of UK maternal sheep flocks. This will enable us to design the most appropriate breeding programme to reduce methane emissions from profitable sheep.”

Phil Stocker, chief executive of the National Sheep Association, was also enthusiastic about the project.

Speaking at industry webinar he said: "NSA is delighted to be a partner in Breed for CH4nge and I see this as a highly significant R&D project to move Britain’s sheep industry forward in terms of productivity gains, alongside reducing methane emissions and improving carbon footprints.

"We have to move faster in terms of farming being a solution to climate change, and play our part in Britain's 30% methane reduction by 2030 targets agreed during COP 26. Through this work the consortium will identify ways to reduce our emissions but also ensure we do this in a way that maintains the wide range of sustainability traits inherent in many of our flocks. Importantly, the project is designed so that, in time, lessons will be able to be adopted by any breed and breeders and I see that as key to improving our genetics without weakening our genetic pool.”

"There is pressure from consumers, supermarkets and farmers to produce low methane sheep and while we shouldn't look to alter the characteristics of our sheep breeds to include the hill breeds, which are vital in UK's unique stratification system, we have to look to reduce emissions from the sector.

Mr Stocker also stressed that methane emissions are affected by a lot more than genetics, with improved productivity such as reduced days to slaughter, increased longevity, and lower levels of mortality all significantly reducing methane levels. Work in New Zealand suggests that genetics could be responsible for 1-10% of a flock's methane reduction potential depending on where the flock stood in terms of efficiency and productivity.

"Overall that is what is interesting about this project, that it is not looking at genetically affected methane in isolation but understanding a wide range of things that affect methane emissions/output.

"NSA is involved to try to make sure this project is of value to the wider sheep industry – via communications but also in making sure the outputs are relevant to all our breed societies if they wish to use them."

Peter Myles, chair of NSA Scotland added: “I would hope that one of Scotland’s native hill breeds be included in this venture, such as the recorded Scottish Blackface flock at SRUC Kirkton of Auchtertyre, ideally to get statistics from sheep fed on heather.

As the foundation of the stratified Scottish sheep flock, Blackfaces should be an obvious choice, if we are to combat the misinformation from those who think hill sheep are an environmental problem when they clearly are not”

The project will also rely on scientific input, technology and additional genetics expertise will be provided by Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) and Harper Adams University, while Signet Breeding Services, part of AHDB, will provide performance recording services. Industry and supply chain partners – Centre for Innovation Excellence in Livestock (CIEL), Pilgrims Pride and Waitrose, will help steer farm system modelling including the use of carbon calculators and will drive an integrated knowledge exchange (KE) programme. National Sheep Association (NSA) will provide a direct and important link with the wider industry and a ‘guiding hand’ regarding policy issues.