The Burping Bovine: Cattle Methane Research with Dr. Karen Beauchemin

*NOTE: This footage was recorded prior to the Government of Canada’s physical distancing guidelines. Canadians are encouraged to continue to follow COVID-19 safety guidelines.

[Rhythmic technological music starts.]

[A tractor and potato harvester wait in a field, rows of potatoes on the left, onions on the right. The harvester moves slowly, picks up the potatoes and loads them into a truck. Freshly harvested iceberg lettuce is cored and placed on a moving ramp where it’s sprayed with water.]

In Canada, agriculture as a whole contributes 8% of the national greenhouse gas budget. Methane emissions from cattle contribute 40% of agricultural emissions, so 3.5% of all the emissions are from cattle.

[A sprawling farm is seen from overhead, and cattle graze in a field.]

[Dr. Karen Beauchmin, wearing a lab coat, walks down a hall in a research centre. She opens the door to the Ruminant Nutrition laboratory and enters.]

Text: Lethbridge, Alberta

My name is Karen Beauchemin and I am a ruminant nutritionist at the Lethbridge research centre.

[Karen in the lab. Text appears beneath her.]

Text: Dr. Karen Beauchemin, Research scientist – Ruminant Nutrition, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

Cows have a unique digestive system that allows them to digest fibre, but as a normal bi-product of that fermentation process they produce methane.

[Cows feeding in a barn. Cattle and ranchers on horseback move through a hilly pasture.]

And that methane produced in the rumen or in the stomach is released via the breathe into the atmosphere, and methane is a potent greenhouse gas.

[Karen in her lab, with fellow scientists. They place small bottles into a cabinet where they are mechanically stirred.]

So, in our research we're interested in developing ways to feed cattle so we have highly productive animals, healthy animals, that produce less methane. We have been looking at a particular feed additive that when fed to the cattle reduce methane emissions by about 30%. That is both for beef cattle and for dairy cattle.

[Scientists fill small sample bottles, work at computers and various scientific work stations.]

So that's very promising for the industry. There's a lot of value especially in a country like Canada, where we have tremendous amounts of permanent pasture and grasslands. There's a lot of advantages of maintaining cattle on those grasslands.

[Cattle and ranchers on horseback move through a hilly pasture.]

So we need to find ways of keeping our beef cattle on those grasslands, but reducing methane emissions.

Text: Learn more at agr.gc.ca/fields of science. We cover a lot of ground.

[The Canada wordmark appears. The technological music fades out.]