Oil-rich by-products can reduce methane emissions

The Primary Industries Climate Challenges Centre at Melbourne University found that by-products such as brewers grain, cold-pressed canola meal and cottonseed meal were effective – the latter also had the potential to increase milk production.

Associate Professor Richard Eckard, who headed the study, says the findings are significant for the cattle industry. “It’s probably at this stage one of the only options we’ve got for reasonable reductions in methane from the livestock industries,” he said.

“You can imagine say for the northern beef herd in Australia, where most of them have never seen a human in their life, your options to intervene and do something are quite limited. ”But for the dairy industry, these options are actually quite tangible.”