International patent for livestock biologists from Dummerstorf
Scientists at the Institute of Farm Animal Biology in Dummerstorf developed a new method to predict the methane emissions of a dairy cow. For the first time, it is possible to predict methane emissions using the milk fat analysis and the daily milk quantity to calculate the actual methane emission. A patent for the new method has been granted by the EU, the USA and Canada; this can be utilized to reduce climate-relevant greenhouse gases.
“With our method, we can estimate the methane emissions of dairy cows from the analysis of the milk fatty acids of a milk sample and the knowledge of the daily milk volume of a cow very well. No additional equipment or expense is needed to do this, because these data are obtained in many testing laboratories in Germany for the monthly milk control from infrared spectroscopic measurements,” explained the head of the FBN Institute of Nutritional Physiology “Oskar Kellner”, Profess