CSU AgNext researchers look into sustainability solutions with livestock

Researchers at Colorado State University (CSU) are working to solve sustainability issues in animal agriculture. AgNext , a relatively new initiative, allows the group to work closely with ranchers and producers to find solutions.

Director Kim Stackhouse-Lawson explained that beef is one of the harshest foods for our environment.

"The uniqueness is that we bring multiple disciplines together to solve this wicked challenge of sustainability in animal agriculture," she said. "So we have experts that study epidemiology — so disease and health in animals — animal welfare and behavior, greenhouse gas mitigation, and then we have modelers, like we have chemical engineers on the team that think about how to track all these things and to measure, sort of the big system impacts."

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CSU scientists studying methane emissions from beef cattle

Colette Bordelon

Lawson said livestock emissions from beef production make up 2% of the United States' greenhouse gas sources, and all farm animals together make up 4%. Methane, she said, is responsible for more than a quarter of our warming potential.

"So methane is the greenhouse gas from animal agriculture, specifically ruminants, that we're most concerned about. Methane is made from ruminants through their normal biological processes," Lawson said.

CSU researchers working with farmers, ranchers to reduce emissions from beef production

If you get to the basics of some of their research, Lawson said they study a cow's methane burp that happens after they digest food.

"We are heavily focused on that because it's a climate concern, but it's also kind of one of the things that the cow ... it's sort of her superpower, right? So that's how she can take all this feed and byproducts that we can't use as people, and she turns them into meat and milk and leather and all other sorts of really cool products that we use. So it's both her superpower and also a bit of a nemesis from a climate perspective," Lawson said.

So, Lawson said her researchers think they may be able to genetically select "lower emitting methane animals" and consider what you could feed an animal to reduce emissions.

"We also think about how do we measure these emissions to make sure that producers are getting credit for those reductions and we're accurately verifying those carbon reductions in the system," she said.

According to Lawson, CSU has only had their research facility for two years, and has already made more emissions measurements from animals than the entire rest of the population has since 1965.

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