Sustainable agriculture
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“Innovation is the key to achieving a sustainable food system,” said EU-commissioner of Health and Food Safety Stella Kyriakides.
NETHERLANDS, Wageningen. Wageningen University & Research (WUR) published its trial results on Bovaer, a novel feed additive to reduce methane emissions in cows. In February, the feed supplement for cows and other ruminants had been approved for the European market.
The trial at Wageningen Livestock Research’s experimental dairy farm successfully demonstrated that methane emissions could be significantly reduced by adding a newly developed feed additive to dairy cow diets. Supplementing Bovaer, the methane inhibitor developed by Swiss company Royal DSM, emission reductions varied from 27% up to 40% of methane per cow, depending on the diets and the dosages of the feed additive.
A consortium from across the Dutch Dairy Chain designed and executed the trial, which ran for three months at WUR’s Dairy Campus in Leeuwarden. The consortium comprised of DSM, Wageningen University & Research, FrieslandCampina, Royal Agrifirm Group, De Heus Animal Nutrition and ForFarmers. The trial was supervised by a team of cattle nutrition experts for the Wageningen University & Research and supported by the Dairy Campus Innovation Fund.
Decade of research
Source: WUR / DSM
