The Cool Beef programme brings together farmers, scientists and industry partners with the goal of producing efficient cattle with a lighter environmental footprint, while maintaining productivity. The programme is building the science that could support future breeding tools, giving farmers more options when making breeding decisions.
Cool Beef is a four-year research programme led by B+LNZ and funded by the Agriculture Emissions Centre to build the science and data needed to better understand feed efficiency and methane emissions in New Zealand beef cattle.
The programme supports future breeding options for farmers by improving understanding of how these traits relate to animal performance and productivity. It builds on earlier industry research, including data generated through the Informing New Zealand Beef (INZB) programme and B+LNZ’s Beef Progeny Test.
Areas of focus
Over four years, the programme will measure feed intake and methane emissions from at least 2,000 beef cattle. A further 1,000 methane measurements will be collected from cattle grazing directly on pasture. The research will provide critical information on the relationships between feed intake, production and emissions, so that we can understand the opportunity to improve these traits individually and together, and the consequences of doing so.
The research includes Angus, Hereford and crossbred cattle from collaborating breeders across New Zealand and will contribute to the development of future Estimated Breeding Values (EBVs) for these traits.
Feed efficiency
Specialised feed intake technology measures exactly how much feed each animal eats, allowing researchers to identify cattle that convert feed into growth more efficiently. This information helps improve understanding of how efficiently cattle convert feed into production.
Methane emissions
Methane emissions are currently measured using Portable Accumulation Chambers (PACs) developed by the Bioeconomy Science Institute, with the potential for additional methane measurement technologies to be incorporated as the programme evolves.
PACs capture gases emitted by individual animals over a one-hour period, and the data is used to rank animals according to their methane emissions. This technology has been successfully used in sheep for many years, with thousands of measurements collected on farms across New Zealand.
Intended outcomes
By combining methane measurements with feed intake and performance data, Cool Beef is generating the robust evidence needed to better understand the relationship between emissions, efficiency and productivity.
The long-term goal is to provide the science and data that supports future genetic evaluation and breeding options for New Zealand beef farmers. A likely post-programme outcome is the development of a breeding value for methane emissions, along with data that would inform breeding values for feed efficiency on New Zealand cattle. These breeding values would provide an additional tool that farmers can choose to use alongside the production traits they already consider when making breeding decisions.
Partners and funders
The Ag Emissions Centre is investing $3.9 million in the programme to May 2029. Cool Beef is led by B+LNZ and delivered in partnership with the Bioeconomy Science Institute and collaborating cattle breeders from across New Zealand.
Two research locations, Te Mania Angus in North Canterbury and Pāmu's St Kilda in Taupō, will collect feed intake and methane emissions data. A third location, Pāmu's Kepler Farm in Te Anau, will collect methane measurements directly from cattle grazing on pasture.
WATCH: The video below shows the first methane and feed intake measurements collected at Te Mania Angus under the INZB programme. Cool Beef extends this work by collecting additional data to support future genetic evaluation of feed efficiency and methane emissions.
This programme forms part of a wider programme funded by the Agriculture Emissions Centre looking at low methane livestock genetics research across beef, sheep and dairy. Find out more on the Agriculture Emissions Centre’s website.