Can selective breeding reduce emissions from our methane-burping friends? 107 cows in Canada are undergoing a first-time experiment of being bred with the specific goal of burping less methane, Reuters reports. Canadian dairy farmer Ben Loewith artificially inseminated the cows and heifers in June with the first-to-market bull semen containing a low-methane genetic trait. Genetics company Semex, who sold Loewith the semen, said adoption of the low-methane trait could reduce methane emissions from Canada's dairy herd by 1.5% annually, and up to 20% to 30% by 2050.

How did they do it? The breeding material is the product of a partnership between Semex, Canada's milk-recording agency Lactanet, and research carried out by University of Guelph and University of Alberta, the newswire writes. Lactanet drew on seven years of research capturing the exhalations of cattle to measure them for methane, and then compared the data against genetic information and milk samples. “The breakthrough here is linking these different components to have a national breeding value estimation for methane emissions based on real breath of animals,” one of the scientists that worked on the project told Reuters.

Global interest, but there are some critics: Semex has already sold some of its products to farms in Britain and dairies in the US and Slovakia, the newswire reports. Some dairy industry officials, however, remain unconvinced about low-methane breeding, saying it could lead to digestion problems.

But there are other ways to address the problem: New Zealand is taxing farmers formethane from cattle starting 2025, and food and drinks conglomerate Restaurant Brands International is feeding cattle less methane-producing foods. Additionally, multilateral organizations like the UN and the World Health Organization agree that reducing the number of cattle by encouraging people to adopt more plant-based diets can significantly decrease methane emissions from livestock herds.

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