Keeping animals in good health is clearly important: healthy animals produce more and live better. They make the production process much more efficient and profitable for farmers.
But one aspect that may not be so obvious is that good animal husbandry practices also reduce the impact on the environment. In fact, the FAO outlined in 2013 that emissions from livestock could be reduced by 30%, in part by adopting existing best practices in health and husbandry.
Poor animal health, poor living conditions and poor husbandry mean that animals are more susceptible to disease and may die before reaching lactation, breeding or slaughter age. By ensuring good animal health, it reduces the number of unproductive animals that emit greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
A study in Scotland, where ruminants are responsible for around 50% of greenhouse gas emissions, has found that better treatment of key diseases in cows and sheep could bring significant savings. For example, in beef cattle, the disease Neosporosis has an impact on birth rates and increases greenhouse gas emissions. The researchers found that better treatment of the disease could save emissions by 4.5%, which is significant for one of Scotland's biggest producers of greenhouse gases.
Nutrition is decisive in the fight to save emissions produced by farm animals. Good overall nutrition on the farm strengthens the animals' natural immune systems and helps them maintain their optimal health. This helps animals produce more, allowing farmers to meet local demand with fewer animals, thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Studies indicate that dietary modification in livestock rearing is empirically able to cut down the amount of methane and nitrogen emissions that cause greenhouse gases.
For example, a study on cattle feed evaluated the effect of different fats on methane production. Tallow, sunflower oil and whole sunflower seeds were added to the diet of Angus heifers. The results found that each animal produced about 14% less methane when the diet contained tallow or sunflower oil, and 33% less methane was released when the diet contained sunflower seeds. It offers some farms an effective way to reduce emissions.
Adding food by-products to animal feed, such as sugar beet molasses, has also been shown to help reduce emissions. This is because it relies less on energy-dense grains.
Supplement and vaccine innovation helps reduce emissions by targeting methane production in the digestive process.
In ruminants, During digestion, methanogens in the rumen allow for straw fermentation, which produces methane. However, there are supplements that have been developed that limit the methane production. They achieve this through inhibition of an enzyme that stimulates intestinal microbes to synthesize methane. For dairy cows, one of such supplements called 3-NOP can cut methane emissions by almost 30%.
In New Zealand, scientists have been working on a vaccine that works in a similar way. The vaccine targets methanogens, gut bacteria that produce methane. The vaccine activates the animals' immune system and causes the methanogens to stop responding. They simply pass through the stomach.
It is the combination of industrial innovation, good health and animal welfare that will ensure more efficient farming practices and therefore increasingly sustainable livestock farming.
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